Everlasting Turnabout
by Elchikaah Haly
Summary: Vampire AU fic. What led an individual named Apollo Justice to become a lawyer, a vampire hunter and finally a hunted?
1. Prologue: Lost Soul

_Warning: this fic contains spoilers for all games, mainly for AA4 and AA5._

_This is yet another cheesy fan fiction idea that came out because of a silly dream. Half AU with the same Ace Attorney characters, and this time, Japanifornia has been infested by vampires._

_I tried to enter most of equivalent events to fit with the in-game timeline. And a main difference from the canon is that Apollo and Trucy had lived together as siblings since forever._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Prologue: Lost Soul**

Date: ?, 2027(?)  
>Place: ?<p>

He gently opened his eyelids, the terrifying, bright light shining through the barred small window, blinding his sensitive eyes. Suffering from the horrific burning sensation caused by the light, he let out an excruciating moan, immediately covering his sight in pain with his shivering hands. When the relief finally came to his orbits, he directed them to the dull but virtually comfortable dark walls. The surfaces were dim and rather unpleasant, being infested with few crawling spiders and some other disgusting bugs. Sometimes, he could see a rat wandering on the floor, and from times to times, more of those execrable rodents came to him as if they were feeling pity for him. He wished he was able to shoo them away, but he could not. How annoying.

And the smell. Oh, the repulsive aroma! What fitted its best description? Maybe some mix of cat pee and animal poos. Let's add some dead worms under a humid air after a heavy rain and some humanly sweats from a man who hadn't had the possibility to clean themselves for weeks.

Wait, that last part probably came from himself. How sickening. How long had he been here, anyway?

He did his best shot to sit down, but his body lost his last willpower to move. After all, he just used his remaining efforts to cover his eyes with his palms. Such a pity, he wished he could at least watch his friend on the other side of the cell from whom he could, strangely, hear the tiny, repetitive up and down movements made by his agonizing breathing. He tried to call for his companion's attention, but no words were able to escape his lips, and it seemed his friend was trying in vain to do the same thing.

Oh yeah, that's right: his friend and he were stuck in this dark, remote cell, apparently in some abandoned prison, with no way to flee, nowhere to go.

Suddenly, his new senses were picking up a new smell approaching from outside the barred cell. It appeared someone was coming for them. Wait a minute, this couldn't be… The first thing he noticed was that he could _smell_ someone was coming close to them. Why couldn't he primarily hear the sounds of the steps they made? Why not some kind of feminine intuition (that girls like to use so much) that somebody was indeed approaching? No, he had to use his sense of smell first of all his five senses, and this fact alone repulsed him to no end.

What about his tummy? Oh goodness, he felt so hungry. Not hungry like when you walk, and, suddenly, your stomach starts growling, but more like a primal, survival hunger. He felt like he'd find anything alive and edible, and then he'll eat it like a vicious beast. Of course, it did not help that he had not eaten and drunken for maybe a week or so, he was not so sure anymore, and he wanted to curse himself whenever his nose kept picking new smells, mostly some putrid ones, but also some faint, wonderful ones that left his mouth hanging, watering with appetite.

He acknowledged at the very moment that his last remaining humanity was gradually fading away from his being, and he knew he was unable to stop this insanity from consuming his very soul. He was also aware his friend on the other side was suffering the same fate. The total despair was overshadowing his tiny faith for a particular reason: he, himself, was the sole cause of his friend's current agony, and he definitely did not deserve any pity from his companion or anyone else.

They were becoming no better than animals.

He wanted to cry, to unleash his emotion and to relieve his soul, but of course, he could not, because very soon, they'll both no longer be themselves: their very souls will be corrupted by instincts and madness.

He finally managed to turn his head toward the bars, but in his lying pose, unable to see the new one coming for them in question, he made no effort to guess who that person was, because he knew exactly who it was. Who wouldn't recognize the _smell_ of the young man who put them in here like two caged savage monsters? And, who knows, maybe he'll open the door and let them out, free like two cheerful wild beasts. But wait, he was dying and the lack of energy made his body lifeless like a heavy rock. Common sense knows that rocks can't move by themselves, basically preventing them from getting out happily from their cell.

The newcomer stood still, proudly watching his two captive young boys, but oddly enough, there was nothing but a serene, feebly worried look in his eyes. As expected, he took a key, unlocked the door and approached the dying brunette who was still faintly moaning with discomfort from the burning feeling earlier. The standing young man made no effort to close the door behind and he gently sat down. He carefully reached for the captive boy in his arms, cautiously landed his head on his cold, yet warm chest and started to delicately stroke the weak boy's hair, humming a strangely soothing lullaby. More rapidly, his will of life began to vanish from his soul.

This couldn't be! It couldn't end that way, such… a savage manner to be gone from this world, to become a degraded shell devoid of thoughts, ridden of his soul, of… of…

No! Keep trying! He frantically closed his eyes in an attempt to keep his humanity intact from the malfeasance he had fought against his whole life… Deep down, he dug into his mind, into his happiest memories, then… he found her back, a young girl beaming with life, friendly grinning at him, holding out her soft hands to him, begging for his wholehearted company, needing him to protect her like he always did ever since she was born… His little sister…

_My only family… She… She… needs to… join… me…_

_No, no, no… What am I thinking…?_

_Please… no… Not this… Not her…_

_I… promised…_

_B… But… Ye… Yes…_

_C-Come to me…_

"Struggling again, boy?"

The captive one attempted to ignore the extraordinarily sweet, melodic remark by his abductor as he was starting to be lost in a dream, an old, real memory. With the sweet lullaby soothing his ears, he could see himself back as a child.

He was crying, craving for his mom's comforting song because he was afraid of vampires since they recently killed his grandfather. His brave mom, courageously hiding the sadness that overtook her as much as her son, wrapped him in her arms and started to cradle the crying child. The boy finally calmed down and peacefully slept under the lullaby she was singing to him, feeling her every warm breaths like a breeze on his slumbering face.

How her soft, gentle voice was like appeasing music to his ears, and how wonderful this dream felt like.

And to his horror, the lullaby his captor was quietly humming was the same as his mother's, the very same she created only for him. Alas, he couldn't escape this sudden control that took over his body and mind, and drowsiness was getting weighty on his soul. As the darkness fell on him once again, he could hear the last words his captor was softly purring and he couldn't turn away from the light that was reflecting on his faintly visible, shining fangs.

"Good night, Apollo."


	2. The Gramaryes - Hunters Extraordinaire

_Let's go 13 years earlier, shall we? Also, thanks to anyone who reads this story, and thanks to chloemcg for the review (still can't PM you :( )! Also, I welcome critiques and stuff (I'm trying to get better in English!), so if you have any, please don't be shy!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 1: The Gramaryes - Hunters Extraordinaire**

Date: July 24th 2014, 8:52 PM  
>Place: Sunshine Coliseum, Public Front Seats<p>

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's acclaim the best of the magicians of our time, the Gramarye troupe!"

When thousands of people began clapping their hands in a harmonious chaos, the three stage magicians held their hands together, and then humbly bowed to the public, with flowers and confetti raining over them. The young caped woman in the middle of the two men snatched one of the beautiful bouquets and pulled it close to her, sending the people a charming smile which could melt all people, men and women alike. It was like an additional magic trick to the already spectacular show, an extra for their tickets.

Not far from the front stage, two kids were sitting among the large adults in the audience, a boy and a small girl, keeping their hands together. However, the boy didn't seem to enjoy the end of the show as much as the little girl or anyone else. He vainly tried to let the girl's hand go so he could cover his ears to drown all the noises around him. He detested loud noises and wished to yell at the top of his lungs to tell people to shut up: the show was not THAT spectacular anyway, at least to him.

Then he decided that abandoning the idea of wildly shouting at everyone was wiser idea. After all, he was told his voice was as legendarily loud as a devastating bomb, so much he loved to call his own loud voice his "Chords of Steel". This annoyed more than few people around, and he was totally aware (and proud) of the fact.

"Polly! Polly!" the little girl yelled innocently, trying to let herself heard from the older boy in this vast ocean of heavy sounds, pointing to the stage at the three magicians. "Mom, Dad, Unkie Vala! They great!"

The boy turned to the girl and amicably stroked her soft hair as a way to release his own stress on her, but he couldn't help but make a smile appear on his face. "Ha, ha!" the boy laughed as noisily as possible. "You know, Trucy, I'm starting to think you're forcing your enthusiasm! I mean, you and I've seen this show like over nine thousands times!"

The little girl, Trucy, looked straight in the boy's eyes, her eyes shining in curiosity, not sure what to think. "What's 'enthusiasm'?" she asked, but unfortunately, the question went completely deaf to the boy's ears and he continued as if she didn't say anything.

"All right, all right!" the boy exclaimed, his voice sounding a bit conquered by the innocence of the girl. "Our family is good on the stage!"

When the clapping and cheering sounds started to die out in the air at the same time adults left their seats, practically shadowing over the two kids, the little girl took this opportunity to repeat her question. This time, she will be heard, hopefully. "What's 'enthusiasm', Polly?"

The boy had a little need to face palm. How long will she keep calling him by that name? He curled over her and gently clutched on her shoulders, softly shaking her. "This is Apollo, not Polly! You should call your big brother by his real name!" the boy said with a small, exhausted tease in his voice.

Little Trucy was unable to contain her guiltless laughter. "Ah! So 'enthusiasm' is 'Apollo'! You're 'enthusiasm', Polly!"

Apollo let her go and lowered his shoulders in total defeat. "You know what? I give up…"

And it was probably for the best. Ever since his little sister Trucy could speak, her first word was not even something generic like "mom" or "dad", or even "mama" and "papa", but "Polly". At first, the big brother was flattered of her first word, but now, the name has been too impregnated on her, and even the rest of his family started to call him that way most of their time. He didn't really mind the nickname, but sometimes, he wished people would call him by his real name.

However, he was so proud to have such a bright little sister like Trucy. Not only she was so talkative, often a little too much for his taste, but her words were always clear and sharp. Additionally, Trucy loved her big brother Apollo so much that she refused to let him go whenever she held his hands. If someone, even their mother, would release him from her grasp, she would scream of blues for long hellish minutes.

She wanted to stay close to her big brother because, like everyone in this world, she knew what darkness lurked among the humanity, a darkness that craved for humans' flesh and blood. She knew the danger was stalking her family like none others, because the Gramarye troupe was not only a famous band of magicians…

… They were also skilled hunters, vampires' hunters.

And her Polly, along with anyone else in her family, could disappear from her life at any time. Better enjoy their time together while they could.

"Hey, Trucy, you're hungry?" Apollo asked.

"Huh-huh!" Trucy nodded, grabbing her stomach. "Tummy's empty!"

"Then we should join Mom and the others in the backstage!" he replied, still holding her hand as he led her on their way to their family's loge, where a wonderful dinner always awaited the current performers of the coliseum. Free food was always welcome, as they said.

When the two kids were heard running in this labyrinth of corridors, few childish laughers were heard escaping from the two, and soon, their dash became some kind of competition on who was the fastest runner. Of course, the male sibling had the advantage of being less clumsy and older. Unfortunately for him, he did not see a man pushing a food cart in front of him when he took a quick turn around a corner. In a loud, catastrophic collision, Apollo crashed into the cart and fell down along with the cart and the young man pushing it. Trucy, not too far behind, screamed at the clashing sound and she went straight to her brother who was crouched on the ground with a minor ache, though not painful enough to cause small tears in his eyes. The girl's attention was so focused on her brother that she didn't notice the older man who was still sitting stiffly on the ground, glaring at the two kids with angry eyes.

Apollo got up to look at Trucy with a smile to ease her mind, to not let her worry for such little things, but when he turned to the man, the latter one didn't seem to be as pleased as the two kids. Embarrassed, the boy scratched the back of his neck while still shyly staring at the older guy. "Huh, sir!" Apollo bashfully exclaimed to the other one with his powerful chords. "I-I'm sorry, I will help you clean the mess, I swear!"

At the very instant, Trucy's eyes went wide. Her fingers were nervously fiddling around her brother's forehead and when she pulled them closer to her, Apollo noticed a little trace of blood on them. Just by checking on the blood, his head suddenly hurt a little more. Maybe that was really the power of the mind playing tricks by worsening his little injuries. He cursed his own brain for making him feel a little more pain than necessary.

But the horror of the aching and the blood didn't really matter anymore when a heavy panting sound very, very close to them was heard louder as the seconds went by. Noticing the breathing came from the direction of the cart man, both kids turned their eyes on him, and the fear struck them like a lightning bolt.

The young man's mouth was wide open, his tongue was hanging down like a panting dog, and two visible fangs were revealing themselves in front of the kids. The dripping blood on Apollo's forehead was the only thing the man was glaring at.

Unable to move, Trucy's eyes were drowned into her own fearful tears. Her lips were trembling and few whimpers escaped from them. Apollo watched her, and the only thought he was able to make out at the moment was that it was the end. There were no other ones beside himself, his little sister and the vicious creature in front of them. He had no weapon of any sort and witnessing his sister in this current abysmal state made his mind wandering around hopelessly, a feeling of shame taking over him. Apollo was only a ten years old kid and his sister was even younger with her tiny three years, and which ten years old boy was able to fend off against a vampire that was twice his size to protect his sister? They'd need a miracle to get out of this mess alive.

The tiny girl couldn't hold it any longer, and she let out a shocked, frightened scream, which woke the instinct that had taken over the beast of darkness. He made a nearly graceful bounce like a wild feline on the boy in a piercing roar.

No, it won't end that way!

Apollo quickly gripped a butter knife that was scattered around and plunged it deep in the vampire's chest as the being sturdily landed on the top of him like a primal animal. Agonizing, the creature raggedly lifted his head up, shouting in pain with a mix of growls, trying to reach out for the knife struck deep in his flesh. This left enough time for Apollo to catch his sister's hand and run for their lives.

When they reached for another corner of the corridor, they finally stumbled upon their own miracle: another familiar young man dressed in a long yellow cape, with a gun ready in his gloved hands. The vampire ran after them, only to be welcomed by a resounding bang and a bullet straight in the forehead, leaving a trail of smaller pieces of flesh behind the creature. Both of the kids hung onto their savior, and soon, one of the two, then the other, were melting in fear and tears in the cape of the young man.

At last, the young boy was the first to speak in a weak and dazed voice. "T-thank you… Uncle Valant…"

Soon enough, the calamity and chaotic mess attracted more witnesses to the gruesome and miserable scene, and the rest of the Gramaryes appeared before the horrid spectacle. The young magician woman, Thalassa, fell on her knee to welcome her two children in her arms and started crying with them. She was so close to lose her two treasures to some dark spawn of hell, but heavens had been merciful on them in the end. When it was his turn, the other taller male magician, Zak, embraced the two kids, but especially his own daughter Trucy, his dearest precious to him.

Their rescuer, Valant, let out a visible frown on his perplexed face. Being a family of a famed troupe of magician, as well as a famous and skilled firm of hunters, was too much risky when it involved two innocent kids, but he was glad both of the them made out of this mess alive and well.

They were a happy little family, after all, and they hoped nothing will break them apart, ever.

* * *

><p>The existence of vampires had been known since forever as the creatures of darkness were living among humans and preying upon them. It was only recently that their presence had been made widely known around the world, with the new discoveries for information exchanges. When Internet came to this public world, everything was finally clear, and the vampire menace was real.<p>

Because, let's face it, it was impossible to get rid of them all, and solutions had to be found to contain the danger of their existence. Scientists had thought of a hypothetical virus that could infect them all, but unfortunately there were risks that would affect humans and other species too. There was no denying that humans and vampires were pretty much alike genetically, so much it was nearly impossible to tell them apart by sight alone unless you unleashed the beast within them: a good, fresh blood sample around them would reveal their true nature. Sure, they had those long, pointy fangs and those awful growling sounds, but it was easy for a vampire to keep their mouth shut, just like a human.

All around the world, governments were trying to find a solution to stop this evidently dangerous menace, and to prevent more causality, many countries had adopted a night curfew. Regrettably, humans were dumb creatures and many of them simply ignored the laws when they still enjoyed their night lives. Who didn't like a night life from times to times?

In countries such as our dearest Japanifornia, the very existence of these dark creatures was starting to become some sort of lucrative thing ever since the government allowed hunting sessions to reduce their population, in order to protect the humanity's safety. Hunters were beginning to appear from many places around the country, and to encourage the hunt further, two types of hunters were created: the public hunters and the private hunters.

The difference between them was quite simple. The public hunters were those who had a quota to respect when bringing bodies of their kills. A quota of one hundred four per year was asked, basically two per weeks, and they were paid a nice salary each year, exempt of the awful taxes no one liked to deal with. If a public hunter were to not meet their killing quota, their salary would drop down and they'd have a penalty on their license, stupidly like a simple driving license penalty. But if they filled their quota and added more extra to it, each extra would make them gain much greater money.

The private hunters were mostly those who used their hunting jobs as a side job. They only needed a license and they only get paid for each kill, but still, each earned them quite a lot of money.

Basically, a public hunter had their job as their primarily salary while a private hunter, like the Gramarye family, used theirs as an extra gain of pay. Both needed a license to hunt and necessary materials, such as guns, pistols and bladed weapons. Normal people without a license can hunt vampires as well, but without a license, the government will not pay them.

With a license, you can create a firm and boss around few hunters within it and of course, each of its members needs a license. And if they were to be public hunters, the quota was applied on each hunter and not on each firm.

Net guns were an extra as it made the hunt sessions easier. A hunter will capture a prey then check if the prey was really a vampire or just a poor human soul wandering at night.

Thanks to this, the hunts were greatly encouraged, but disappearing hunters were not that uncommon because of the dangerous situations they got into, causing a sort of controversy about the whole hunting idea. Also, you'd have to be careful since there were hunters that have killed innocent humans, thinking they were creatures of the night. This recently happened to a famous hunter firm that was also a law firm, the Grossberg Hunt Office. Their most skilled hunter, Robert Hammond, had killed a human accidentally, and not only Robert got to lose his license permanently, but he got to serve a long sentence in prison. And because of his guilty act, the boss of the firm he worked in will permanently lose his license to create another firm and the place will shut down. It was fortunate that he still had his law office.

"That sounds too bad for Mr. Grossberg!" Apollo said with a yawn, a sleeping Trucy tucked in his arms. Somehow, he felt sleepy as well. "I mean, it was not even the boss's fault if one of his students made a mistake! And besides, why do I have to learn all of this?" Listening to all the "political" side of the vampire hunting was all but boring to the mind of a little kid.

Zak smiled at the boy as he closed his projector connected to his laptop. "Well, kid, that's something you'll need to know if you want to be a hunter like us!" the great man let him know.

The boy let out a wide mocking grin. "Yeah, yeah, I know!" the kid responded. "But, you know, Zak, you shouldn't have used a cheap _pptx_ file for this! We're in 2014! Make it awesome!"

Upon hearing what the kid just said, it was impossible for the man to keep his mouth sealed when a huge laugher escaped his lips. The sound he made was so loud it woke the little girl up. "C'mon, little Polly, I know you're better than me in computing, but I'm a magician and a hunter, not I'm a graphic artist, for god's sake!"

"Zaaaak!" Apollo called out, awkwardly. "You woke Trucy up!"

The small girl's eyes wandered around for few seconds before she slowly shut them again with a comfy yawn. After lightly dropping off the laptop on the table, the man used his strong arms to quietly cuddle the sleepy daughter of his. When she drowned back into her world of sweet dreams, he smoothly put her back on the couch. Like an excited boy, Apollo jumped to reach out for the laptop and tried to play with it. Unfortunately, a password was needed to log back to the system. The boy sulked.

"Ha, ha! I might not be a mighty computing man, but I can use the parental controls and users' passwords!" Zak laughed hard again, mocking the poor boy.

"Hey, how unfair!" Apollo cried out to him, the wide grin still stuck on his face as a response to Zak's teasing. "That's my mom's laptop anyway! You shouldn't use parental controls when you're not even my parent!"

To reply the child, the tall man wildly stroked the two pointy antennas on his soft brown hair, destroying his hair gel masterpiece which made him so proud of. Zak felt a little sorry for the kid, but at least he didn't take any offense from Apollo's comment about the parent part. He knew the boy was aware that he was not his real father; not to mention how Apollo still appreciated the man like an uncle.

Feeling pity for the kid, Zak typed the password to log back into the system, and Apollo was pleased to no end as the operating system loaded with few comforting purr noises, though a little bit on the slow side. "Mom needs to buy another laptop…" he thought.

A surprise awaited his curious eyes when an old photograph with four happy young adults holding each other's shoulders popped out in the background of the system interface. He smiled when he recognized three of them in the picture: his mother, Thalassa Gramarye, his stepfather Zak Gramarye, also known by his real name of Shadi Enigmar, and lastly, Uncle Valant Gramarye (though this guy refused to let everyone know his real name, but it didn't really matter). Behind them, he noticed the Sunshine Coliseum where his family performed often. The date stamp on the photo indicated 2003/06/16, about seven months before he was born.

He thought this was a funny picture because how Uncle Zak and Uncle Valant looked like, so young and yet so similar like they were right now despite their weird hair styles, but his mom didn't change much despite looking much younger.

However, there was another young man in the picture, directly placed between his mother and Zak. He was unable to recognize him, but, somehow, he still looked familiar. Apollo was curious as he couldn't keep his eyes away from the unknown man who appeared younger than all the others.

"Hey Zak, who's that guy over here?" Apollo asked, pointing at the mysterious one.

Immediately after the boy finished his sentence, he felt a familiar, bothersome sense coming to him. He eyed his golden bracelet as it tightened around his left wrist. A much tensed Zak didn't seem pleased to speak about it, and now the kid's curiosity grew even broader about that enigmatic man on the picture. Zak knew about tense sensation Apollo was feeling and left a long sigh, being aware it will be hard to hide anything from the kid.

"Ah…" the older man exhaled, his eyes squinting at him. "Apollo, that's your father, Eros Justice."

However, much to Zak's relief, Apollo didn't seem shaken by the revelation. He was probably used to the idea of not having a father anymore since his mother already told him few times how his late father was so heroic. Apparently, he died while saving him and his mother from a vampire when Apollo was only ten months old. No wonder the young man looked so familiar to the boy! "Zak, can you tell me more about him?"

A smile appeared on the man's face. "You should go ask your mom. I mean, she knew much more about him than I did!" Zak exclaimed, not really wanting to remind himself of the past.

Apollo nodded silently at him in agreement before he returned his attention to the laptop, enjoying a fun time playing some Flash games. Few minutes had passed since and he fell into a quick slumber, and, just like a normal, innocent kid, he forgot about what he wanted to ask his mom as soon as he woke up the next day. A new, exciting day awaited him, like every new day!

* * *

><p>Date: April 10th 2015, 5:04 PM<br>Place: The Gramarye Residence, Living Room

"Mom! Mom! There's a circus in town!"

"Woah there, Apollo, calm down!"

Apollo threw off his schoolbag on the floor and called Trucy who had been watching a cartoon show on the TV. Her attention was now turned to her older brother. "Trucy! There's a circus!"

The little girl's smile went wide when she heard the word "circus". She wildly started jumping all around the living room while holding Apollo's hands and the boy laughed along with her. Trying to calm down the two kids, Thalassa put up her strict air and started speaking louder, trying to cover her son's "chords of steel" (as he loves to called them) and her daughter's shrieks. "Apollo Justice! Trucy Enigmar! Calm down!" she rigorously ordered out loud again, this time putting an odd emphasis on their proper surnames.

After hearing their last names, both kids went into an awkward, silent mode. Whenever their mother used their last names when calling them, this meant serious trouble for them. However, to their relief, Thalassa simply shushed them and bent herself to her son's level. "All right, Apollo, now that you calmed down, tell me what I need to know," the mother did everything to sound strict, and to her luck, this worked like a charm.

The boy started with a low, cautious voice, but as he spoke, his chords of steel were gradually coming back to him. "Well, there's that new circus in town, and I heard there will be awesome animals and performers, and all my pals at school are going to see it! We should go too!"

Thalassa left out a soft chuckle. It seemed her son was so used to her magic shows that he needed something else for a change, something like a traveling circus. At least her daughter was a different story since no matter how many times she'd see their shows, it was always like a new performance every time.

But this time, the mother simply agreed with her son. "Ok, let's go see the circus!" she finally said.

With the answer, both kids screamed of joy and hugged their mother tightly. After all, they didn't get to do many things with their family since they were always so busy with their shows and their hunt sessions, and now they were going to see a circus together. Apollo couldn't ask more than that, and he never felt so happy to have such an awesome mom.

Nevertheless, the woman slightly directed her head to the side, still looking at her son with a sad, faint smile. "But let's go see this tomorrow, shall we?" she continued. "I'm going to have a hunt session with Uncle Valant and Zak tonight, but tomorrow I'll let them know that I promised you and Trucy we'll go see the circus! Just be patient for another night, all right? Besides, tomorrow is Saturday so it will be a much better day to see the circus!"

There was a slight disappointment in the eyes of both kids, especially Apollo, but within all these past years, both of them had learned to be patient children when adults had grownup businesses to attend. The brother and sister nodded happily and promised to wait for them without showing any sign of impatience. After packing with their equipment, the three Gramarye adults waved their hands at the kids when they reached the exit door, but Thalassa insisted to come back and gently kissed her children on their forehead. That was her funny tradition to do this before every hunt sessions because the mother childishly liked to call this her own "lucky charm". Not that the kids or the other two older men minded the silly act.

As usual, the rest of the afternoon and the evening went like any other normal days. Apollo made the dinner for everyone, though Trucy insisted on helping him regardless of her young age, so to please her, the boy gave her easy tasks like sweeping the kitchen and the dinner room. To mark this exciting day, since tomorrow they'll go see the circus with the family, he really wanted to make the best meal he could think off.

He noticed tons of raw chicken wings in the fridge. It must have been Valant who bought them; he loved buying a large amount of food when there was a bargain on them. Well, it seemed he was settled for some chicken wings with some rice and a nice, healthy salad. He carefully mixed the wings with some fish sauce, salt and pepper and left those marinating inside the spices, then he'll simply fried them. He loved that recipe and he knew everyone else did. Such a simple food and yet so good!

After two hours of great sibling team work, everything was ready on the table and, as always, the brother and sister began eating their food with ferocious appetite before the three adults will come back.

Since tomorrow was Saturday, Apollo was glad he will not have to attend school, meaning he could have a late night sleepover with his sister who was still too young to go to school. In those kinds of nights, they would spend hours playing little games together, like a gaming console or some board games.

But this night, they'd rather speak of the circus they were promised to see.

"Polly!" Trucy called. "You haf gone to circus before?"

"Nan, never, but I heard there are a lot of animals doing tricks and people performing acrobatic feats."

"That sounds like magic, like Mom and Dad and Unkie Valant!"

"Kind of, but I think the circus will be more spectacular. I mean, the people and the animals use their own physical talents, not like magicians who use illusions!"

"Awwww, but magic is magic, Polly!"

* * *

><p>Date: April 11th 2015, 3:35 AM<br>Place: The Gramarye Residence, Apollo's room

A faint sob from another room woke him up. Frustrated, he growled a little and he tried to go back to sleep, but his action was vain as his sister's crying sounds incessantly continued. In the middle of the night, the adults should have come back and sleep, and Trucy as well.

Having nothing else to do since he was unable to return to his sweet slumber anyway, he took the decision to stand up and slowly walked to his bedroom exit. The surprise struck him when he realized Trucy's cries did not come from her own room, but from the dining room. Maybe she was hungry, or maybe eating fatty foods like fried chicken wings before sleeping was not such a good idea. There was an Internet rumor that said doing so would give people nightmare, but he thought that was one of those online fake idiocies since he never made any nightmares because of that before.

When he reached the dining room, he found Trucy, her eyes watering in sadness, looking at all the cold food saved for the adults, still sitting on the table and waiting for their guests to come and devour them.

Something fishy was in the air, and maybe that was why Trucy was crying.

"Truce," Apollo calmly called, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Why are you crying?"

Trucy turned to her big brother and tried to stop her ceaseless sobs, but she was unable to do so. "M-Mommy, Daddy, Unkie V-V-Valant… they're not back…" she wept, anxiously wiping her tears.

Well, that certainly explained why the food was still intact on the table, but he was not worried: it was not the first time the adults came back later than usual. He patted on her back and did his best to show a smile. "Aww, don't worry," the boy reassured. "I'm sure Mom and everyone else are just a little late. We should go back to sleep. Mom will welcome us in the morning with a kiss and we'll go see the circus!"

In turn, the girl tried her best grin too. "O-Okay, the circus will be so much fun!"

The hours went by, the morning came, but no one came to wake them up, especially not with a kiss.

* * *

><p>Date: April 17th 2015, 10:49 AM<br>Place: The Gramarye Residence, Living Room

It had been one week.

One entire week, and still no sign of the three Gramaryes.

There was not a single day that went by without hearing Trucy's sobs and the telephone's irritating ringing. Last Sunday, Apollo didn't have the choice to call the police when he heard no news from his mother and the two others. He did his everything to not show his tears for Trucy so he kept the light beaming inside home. He wanted to express how strong her big brother was, but whenever she was sleeping or weeping alone in a room, he'd go to his room and let the emotion taking over his mind and the tears streaming like a waterfall.

A scruffy looking detective named Dick Gumshoe had been assigned to keep a look on them while a search warrant had been made to find the three adults. Despite not being very good with kids, the detective seemed to have gained their friendly affection with his peculiar, sympathetic and innocent way of life.

Even if Apollo felt pity for the policeman who could have enjoyed his job more by doing a real detective work instead of having to keep an eye on two young children, he was so glad to have the presence of such kindhearted man around home, even if he sometimes had weird and random comments about… everything. The Gummy man (like his sister loved to call him) appeared to enjoy making the kids smile.

Watching the two sad children smile was like an extra to his own meager paycheck (oh, how he loved to speak of his low salary!).

However, today, the man appeared different. After the phone call he just had with his police teammates, Apollo could see it: Mr. Gumshoe's eyes went empty with a hint of concern and sorrow.

"Sir, w-what's the m-matter?" Apollo asked, his trembling lips having trouble forming his words.

Detective Gumshoe seemed to have been awakened from a nightmare upon hearing Apollo's loud voice, but he didn't really want to look at the boy and he did his best to avoid a direct glare to his eyes. After leaving a long, desperate sigh while looking at the ceiling, not eyeing anything particularly, the scruffy man finally replied. "I'm sorry, Apollo and Trucy… I-I don't know how to tell you this, b-but…"

"They are dead, aren't they?"

Astounded, the detective took all his courage to finally turn his eyes toward the boy who had just interrupted him. The young eyes were brightly piercing in agony, his teeth were gritting in pain, and soon weeps came out from his chords.

"I- sniff… I e-expected this to happen…" Apollo revealed with few sniffles.

Coming out from her room, Trucy heard the news, and she ran to soak her tears in her brother's chest, unable to contain her excessive crying.

The news later publicized how the Gramaryes, hunters and magicians extraordinaire, were no more. Shadi Enigmar, known by the stage name of Zak Gramarye, was found dead in a nearby abandoned town, apparently devoured by more than one vampire as the body was found with multiple bite marks. It was assumed the same fate had fallen upon his wife Thalassa and his friend Valant as traces of their blood were found around the body of Zak, but their bodies were never recovered or even found. Searches were still on-going for their bodies, but there was little hope.

In the end, their mother could never hold her promise to see the circus.


	3. Outside at Night

_Changed the summary of the story because I realized it had a major AA4 spoiler (and I guess many readers in this site are AA5 players who aren't aware of the major AA4 spoiler)._

_This chapter is kinda depressing, but it will end on a much happier note with another familiar character._

_I might add that the chicken wings recipe mentioned in the previous chapter is actually a real recipe and is very delicious. I must also thank my friend Lique for the name pun of my evil attorney in this chapter._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 2: Outside at Night**

Date: April 18th 2015, 9:31 AM  
>Place: Malone Law Office, Main Office<p>

"And that's why the entire Gramarye legacy will be inherited by me!"

The boy just had enough. The notary attorney in front of them, apparently named Davon Malone, was just playing mind tricks on them to exhaust the children more than necessary. According to the papers, he was the one who took care of the inheritance issue for the Gramarye family, but this cursed attorney was keeping everything for himself. Apollo didn't believe him the slightness, but the man shoved them all the papers signed by the three magicians which gave everything to the attorney, including their grand residence. The young teen was astonished: he knew the evidences never lied, but evidences could be lies too.

Enraged, Apollo shouted at the man of law. "How can we affirm these documents weren't falsified?"

Mr. Malone went silent a moment before a burst of laughter escaped his mouth. "Really, kiddo, what do you know about the law?" the man blurted out like a madman. "Can you confirm these were falsified? I can assure you these are authentic!"

Then Apollo suddenly felt it, his bracelet tightening around his wrist and at the same time, he saw it: the faint twitch of the man's right eye just when he mentioned his words. Not only Mr. Malone was a revolting attorney, but he was a big, fat liar. However, the boy was so exhausted about everything. His mother disappeared from this world with his two uncles and Trucy lost her two parents. Even at his young age, he had no choice but to try and act like an adult in these desperate times, having to deal with paper works and calls from everywhere, even those businesses offering funeral services at the best deals. As if he needed to be bothered about death right now.

He almost felt fortunate that he was sharing his grief with his little sister, telling himself he shall never be alone in this, but it was so ironic how he wished this never happened to her, the poor child.

Of course, he had no way, right now, to prove that the documents shown by Mr. Malone were false, and he knew there was no hope to win against the man. Who'd believe a young boy who could tell lies with his piercing stare and his piece of jewelry, from simply scrutinizing body tensions from liars?

At least he got to keep the keepsake of his mother, the only remaining object of his old family: his cherished bracelet.

The Gramarye legacy was no more, and their two heirs had fallen to the deepest misery level with no home and nowhere to go.

Since they had no known relative alive, the police had to intervene for them again. The law gave them away to a foster home like a charity gift. Although they weren't really a pleasant gifts people like to receive during Christmas or any religious holiday. Rather, they were more like an obligation from the foster parents who did everything to look happy to welcome the two new kids in their home. It was just as the dramatic media liked to depict foster parents from foster homes: they just wanted their pension funds for taking in poor orphans and poor abandoned children. The more bastards they kept, the more money they gained, as long as the kids stayed under their roof.

One step at a time, Apollo and Trucy entered the new house they still refused to call home, the little sister keeping her older brother tight in her arms, her mouth shut, her eyes full of sorrow and shyness. The bigger boy kept an arm around her trembling shoulders, trying to gaze at their new _parents_ while letting his cool air do the rest. The first thing he noticed was how much the couple stank like smoke and some faint alcohol.

Evidently, the parents weren't alone. Few other kids were around, curiosity taking over them to check who were the newest additions in this lot of bastards. The oldest one, probably a teen around fifteen or sixteen, left a kind of grumpy grunt upon seeing them, giving them a glare with a raised eyebrow as if they were his revelations, an answer to the unknown question he was asking himself since forever.

"Man, aren't you the kids of those lame Gramarye magicians?" the bigger teen spitted out before his "mother" violently slapped him on the cheek.

"Goddamnit, stop being a douche!" she yelled at the teen. "Don't you shut your trap sometimes, sonny?"

The teen crossed his arms with a smile and a frown. "Heh, you're not even my mom, so stop ordering us around, bitch!"

The two newcomers hugged each other even tighter now. They felt trapped in this torment and they were afraid of what was going to happen with their lives.

They wanted to see their old family back.

* * *

><p>Date: May 2nd 2015, 9:57 PM<br>Place: Foster Home, Backyard

They said nights were dangerous in these dark times, but they didn't care for now. The air outside was much fresher and the sky was more spectacular from outside. To hell with the curfew!

Ever since they arrived by force in their new foster home, two weeks ago, Apollo did not attend school at all. Not that he hated being there, but rather, he did not trust anyone under this stinking roof and he refused to leave young Trucy alone with them. And the worst of it all, he noticed the odd tension from the oldest teen in there, Brad, whenever he was glaring at Trucy, always with a creepy manner. Brad couldn't be that type of guy, couldn't he? He really hoped so, but, under the roof of this rotten place, everything was possible.

The school called home many times to ask the reason for Apollo's absence, but the parents would always response with a generic reply such as "Oh, little Apollo's sick today!" or "Apollo hurts himself today!" Of course, none of these were true, but what could the boy do about it?

That night, both Apollo and Trucy were outside, enjoying their own meal: a delicious looking apple they stole from the fridge when no one was looking. The brother didn't mind if the parents saw him doing so as they were too busy smoking something weird anyway, so he also took the opportunity to take a kitchen knife along to cut the fruit. At least he was good using a knife, thanks to his late mother who taught him how to use them properly in case of vampire attacks. We could never be too sure like she used to tell him.

That day was the first time in two weeks since the siblings were honestly smiling when they finally got to enjoy a time eating a good food. As they say, eating is one of the greatest pleasures of life.S

When they finished their meal, Trucy hung tight onto her brother, yawning. "Polly, let's sleep outside," she murmured as she slowly closed her eyes.

However, Apollo looked back to the sky, watching as the bright moon disappeared behind a thick, dark cloud, and he began thinking about the dangers of the night. While attacks by the night creatures were not that common, they still fully exposed themselves to the danger by staying outside. Not that the foster home was a great place to sleep in either, but maybe it was better to return inside and at least stay alive for the time being. As long as there was life, there was hope!

Unfortunately, he felt dizzy as well. He wanted to get up and bring his sister back inside, but the darkness quickly came over his tired mind. Trucy and he endured so much in so little time; they'd definitely deserve this great sleep, even if they were to stay exposed under the dark sky.

As he leisurely drifted away in his own world, he flied around the city, the sun warming his cheeks, the wind flowing through his two pointy hair antennas, the ones he missed so much because he had no access to any hair gel where he lived now. Wait a minute. His two pointy hair antennas? The sun at night time? And how the heck could he fly? No human could fly like that!

How fun, so he was dreaming, and even after being aware of his sleeping condition, he was still stuck inside this happy, imaginary world! How convenient, he never felt so pleased to be slumbering: that way, he will escape his hell for a little while!

Behind him, he could see Trucy enjoying her flight in the air and laughing with joy. She'd reach for the clouds, disappear in the mist for long, enjoyable seconds and come back to him as hastily as the wind, cheerfully shouting: "Mommy, Daddy and Unkie Valant are waiting for us on the clouds! Let's go see them together!" She held his hand and led the way up there. He, too, was so eager to see his family back.

His sister was right; the three of them were up there, all waiting for the two kids.

His mother was the first to approach them, and she gently gazed at her son with melancholic but shining eyes. A sweet lullaby began to leak out from her mild lips, a smile forming on the same luscious instant. Apollo's body shivered with delight as he tried to hold his tears. He went to fly into her arms.

Except he could never reach her.

Suddenly, his mother faded away in the air like dying flame, and then his two uncles followed her. Everything around him became thick dark like the abyss of hell, and the only thing he could hear was the piercing, horrified scream of his sister. He nervously turned around and witnessed a frightening scene as a shadow was engulfing his sister. Swift like the lightning, he stretched his hand toward her to grab her in an attempt to free her from the creature, but the shadow shoved his entire being banging into a tree, leaving him with a throbbing injury on his shoulder.

He finally came back to the reality, and what awaited him was even worse than his nightmare.

Brad was tightly holding little Trucy against him as he tried to undo her cloths. The panicking little girl did everything to get away, but the big teenager's arms were too strong for the poor child.

"Trucy!" Apollo vociferously yelled, terrified of what was going to happen to his sister if he were to stay still, and gathering all the courage he could, he wasted no time to hold himself back. He quickly bounced onto the bigger guy and bit him hard in the neck, so far as to reach him for his flesh. Brad let out a painful shriek and released Trucy from him. Apollo quickly dropped down on the ground and went after his sister, seizing the kitchen knife on the way and pointing it at the teenager in a faint agony. Adrenaline rushing through his veins, Apollo was panting like mad, a trail of blood was dripping from his mouth and his piercing eyes were glaring at the older guy. It was almost hypnotizing.

Right on the moment, the boy looked like a frightening creature of the night.

Surprisingly, there was a sudden, desperate burst coming out from a scared Brad who started yelping like a miserable dog, trying to cover himself with his arms. Curled into a small ball, the teen began to mutter unsteady, terrified words.

"Please… pleasepleaseplease… y-you guys got Mommy and Daddy already… don't… come near me…"

Apollo's thoughts were conflicted and verily confused at the moment. His humane morale was screaming how he should have sympathized for the guy, realizing that Brad and probably all the other brats in this foster home had their own stories to share and their own reasons to come live here with those perturbing "parents". But his own mind was telling him that Brad was nothing more than an absolute, disgusting child lover. There was a reason for everything, but nothing could approve his action toward his little sister.

Now, there was no way they will stay here any longer, not when this sickening teenager was still living among them.

The big brother turned to his crying sister and hugged her tight. He held her shoulders and dropped himself to her level. "Trucy, let's get out of here."

The little girl nodded and her brother led the way out, even dashing through the house with their foster parents on their path. Both kids ignored them when they called them and asked them where they were going. When they finally reached out of the entrance, they felt as if the air was lighter and the sky was shinier.

* * *

><p>Certainly, the sudden, heavy rain didn't really help them in their run, and they had to find a place to hide, fast. The cold temperature made everything worse when Trucy started to cough along the way. Obviously, they currently had no access to any kind of medication and even less a good, warm home, but at least, they found something that might help them from the moment being: a children park. In the middle of it stood a big apple shaped slide. It was to their luck the slide had a sturdy roof above, and they decided to hide under it.<p>

Trucy was still sick, but at least she was out from the rain reach, even though both were already soaked through and through. Of course, it was out of the question to try covering her with his own wet jacket as a wet cloth will make things worse, but at least he could cover her with his arms.

Soon enough, the rain started to die out, finally, and the place was clear enough to see the high panel close to the park entrance. Even in her weakened condition, the girl pointed at it and proudly read "Vitamin Square". Apollo chuckled at the words, and once again, he never felt so heart warmed at his little sister's intelligence. Not many children could read at the tender age of four.

For the time being, it was the best to stay in this slide, since there was a bright light not too far and they were able to see everything around, in case something suspicious lurked nearby.

Something felt itchy on Apollo's shoulder and he went to scratch it until he stupidly realized he completely forgot about the small injury he got earlier and the wound opened again. As soon as he felt the blood under his nails, he really, really hoped no vampire were around. There was no way he could have forgotten the story last year when the vampire attacked him and his sister in the coliseum. They might be smelling the blood escaping from his wound from everywhere!

Even in this innocent looking park.

Even here…

The growling sound, the heavy breathings, he heard them very well.

Finally, a lurid, hissing woman suddenly appeared at the slide entrance, and the two kids let out a terrified scream together. Agitated like a wild beast, the vampire tried to catch one of their legs, only to get a fierce kick in the face by the boy. Furiously, the woman roared at them, her mouth was so wide open they could clearly see the long, white fangs that hungered for more fresh blood.

In spite of the sudden life-threatening event, Apollo remembered the knife he stole from the foster home, and as soon as he reached for it, his felt his body moving on his own; the knife was leading the way for him.

Deep straight in the forehead of the vampire.

The creature abruptly went silent completely, her eyes still wide open by the surprise attack. Apollo let the small weapon smoothly slide off from the deep, sordid cut, the cold blood of the creature reaching his shivering hands. The vampire fell down in a soft sound on the sand, not ever moving again, to the two kids' relief.

Things couldn't get worse, couldn't they?

Alas, their relief didn't even last for a minute when two others spawns came after them, one from each side of the slide, and this time, they were even more aggressive, probably angered by the death of their vampire gal. Now, they'd need another miracle to survive.

Unfortunately, the Gramaryes were no more. Uncle Valant was not coming to save them again. His mother and Uncle Zak will not come back to hug them after.

_BANG!_

The one on Trucy's side fell.

_BANG!_

And now, the one on Apollo's side fell onto the already killed female vampire.

The miracle really happened in the end.

Unable to move from their spots, the two kids hugged each other even tighter, both shuddering with cold and terror. They heard few soft steps coming toward them, and the sound became louder as the second went by. Another one was approaching and the new, mysterious enigma finally exhibited himself to the kids.

Here stood a young, long-haired blond man with an impeccable pair of glasses and a very clean suit, a pistol ready in his hand, still smoking from the two earlier shots.

He was their new miraculous knight in shining armor.

The expression of the young man appeared so serene and kind, and the smile he revealed looked so sincere that somehow, Apollo knew he could trust him.

Seeing how silent the kids were, the tall, blond man began to speak, his angelic voice soothing both of them. "Hello, young children," he greeted them with a gentle expression. "Might I ask what are two children doing here in the middle of the night? Do you know the danger of wandering outside at this time? If I did not come here to find you, you'd become the next meal of these repulsive spawns of hell."

It was like the sunshine they needed in their lives right now. Apollo was so relieved and happy that his remaining family survived this mess once again, and he wanted to openly thank the man who just saved them. Yet, he was unable to form any word as he was still quivering with his crying sister in his arms. Noticing the tension from the two kids, he decided to smoothly hold out his hand to their direction.

"You have nothing to worry about me," the man reassuringly said. "Maybe your parents taught you to not speak with strangers, but I assure you that I'm no mere stranger, at least not anymore soon. Let me introduce myself."

"My name is Kristoph Gavin, and I'm a full-time hunter."

"Now that I've told you my full name, no more I'm a stranger, so let me hear yours."

Both Apollo and Trucy were staring straight into the young man's eyes, almost innocently, but after hearing him speak, trust was the only thing that came to them, and finally, both landed their hands on Mr. Gavin's. The boy forced a smile, but it was a genuine one.

"Hi, Mr. Gavin…" Apollo shyly started. "My name is… Apollo Justice and this is my little sister, Trucy Enigmar."

For a second, Mr. Gavin's orbit went wide by wonder before he shifted them back to their normal state. And for a split of moment, Trucy could have sworn the man directed his stare on her brother's golden bracelet. Well, that was understandable as the jewelry piece stood out quite a bit. The man softly bit his lips while questioning himself about the two. "Are you, perhaps, the children of the Gramaryes?" Mr. Gavin asked.

It was now Apollo's turn to widen his eyes in astonishment. "Yes sir, how did you know?" he loudly exclaimed.

Mr. Gavin let out a soft laugh. "You must be aware of your parents' popularity, aren't you? While their popularity doesn't speak of their heirs at all, the news were kind enough, or perhaps not so kind, to provide us the names of the two orphaned kids the legacy left behind. I find this kind of special that none of them even bear the name of Gramarye, and it's even more surprising they bear different last names. How unusual for two blood siblings!"

"Might I add, this place is no place for young children like you to stay at night. I must invite you to stay at my home for tonight!"

The siblings heavily breathed in amazement. Was their new savior really inviting them to his home? A warm, hot home? This seemed too amazing to be truth. Apollo shook his head in disbelief, trying to see if he was actually dreaming or not. "Ar… Are you sure, Mr. Gavin?" the boy blurted out timidly. "I m-mean... Sir, that would be too kind of-"

"No, no! I insist!" Mr. Gavin interrupted, his lips still curled up mildly. "How can I leave two young orphans all by themselves outside at night? The cold, the rain, the beasts of the night, I think you've endured enough, and you deserve better. Don't you agree?"

Soon enough, a river of joyful tears streamed down from the boy's eyes as he hugged his sick sister who had started to fall asleep. A sick one needed their sleep, after all. "T-Thank you, Mr. Gavin!"

The hunter led them to his quite expensive car, stationed not too far from the park. He opened the door for them so they could get comfortable in. Mr. Gavin told them he first needed to call the government authority to collect his primes (the killed vampires indeed!) so he'll get paid for his hunts. Of course, Mr. Gavin was a hunter too! Apollo still had a hard time gathering how this clean, polite man was actually a professional hunter. The inside of the vehicle was as clean as the man who owned it, and the boy pretty much felt bad to have added some dirt and filth on the comfortable and sweet smelling bench.

As he watched Trucy slumbering against him, he, too, felt his mind slowly shutting down for a good night sleep.

* * *

><p>Date: May 3rd 2015, 9:05 AM<br>Place: ?

A mixture of laughter and coughs woke him up from his torpor. He turned his head around, the brightness of the place blinding his tired eyes but also warming his cheek. He searched for the origin of the sounds that popped him out from his dream world and a relief took over him when he noticed on the side, his little sister playing with… a big golden dog?

Wait a minute, where were they, exactly? This room looked so strange and unfamiliar, yet so charming and comfy. On the wall, he could see a digital clock showing the date and time. And there was a delicious smell in the air that felt like bacon and pancakes. The two siblings were sitting on a big couch, a cover sitting on them with a golden retriever happily licking Trucy's head for some affection.

What about the rest of the room? A huge 3D TV stood not too far in front of them and next to this living room was the dining room, where he finally found out the origin of the delicious smell: there were really pancakes and bacon pieces ready on the table, which seemed to await the two kids.

Before he let the hunger took over, his attention was drawn to a handwritten letter on the small table before them with two large T-shirts on the side. He took it and read it, with Trucy behind trying to read along with her brother. However, very soon, she abandoned the idea of trying to comprehend what was written on it.

"_Dear Apollo Justice and Trucy Enigmar,_

_Welcome to my luxurious apartment. I'm hoping you are enjoying your time here; this is the best I can offer you for now._

_Since you were wet from the heavy rain, I offer you these two shirts so you can cloth yourself. Unfortunately I do not have any cloth for your stature, but I hope these will do._

_If you need to take a shower, you can use the bathroom. No offense, but I think you definitely need one._

_Since I'm a full time hunter, I sleep when daylight comes, so chances are that I'm sleeping right now in my room when you'll read this letter, so please do not come disturb me. I also prepared in advance an appealing breakfast, so don't worry if it might be a little cold. There's a microwave in the kitchen, so use it if you need to. There are also some leftovers in the fridge for your dinner and supper._

_Don't worry about my golden retriever, Vongole. I assure you she won't bite you or your food. She loves children and she will probably enjoy your company._

_Please, suit yourselves at home, except disturbing me, of course. We'll continue our discussion on the evening._

_Kristoph Gavin_"

When Apollo finished reading the formal, yet heartwarming letter, Trucy was already exploring the rest of the apartment with Vongole. She then reached for the only closed door of the place, which Apollo immediately guessed as the room of Mr. Gavin.

"Trucy, no!" he tried to whisper loud enough for her to hear, trying to not use his proud chords of steel to wake the man up, but it was too late. She turned the door handle.

To their luck, the room was locked, and Trucy crossed her arm with a frown. "Aww, I want to see what's inside!" she murmured sadly, but then few coughs escaped her mouth.

Like a contagious tic, Apollo suddenly felt the need to cough as well. It seemed he was getting sick as well. He grabbed the two shirts and came after his sister. He took her hand and led her to the bathroom. It was true there was some kind of uncomfortable stench in the air, and to his dismay, the boy knew it came from their own selves when he sniffed his arm. "All right, Truce, I think we really need a bath…"

And at the moment, Apollo had never been so grateful about life after what they just went through.

Trucy was fine, and he was fine!

* * *

><p>When Mr. Gavin opened the door, it was about 6:00 PM. The two children were sitting quietly on the couch in the living room, their being cleaning from dirt and with their huge shirts on them, enjoying a cartoon on TV. They did not hear the man as their attention was still intensely focused on the show. Vongole was peacefully sleeping by their sides. The hunter let a soft chuckle spurted out while looking at them. The siblings seemed to have settled nicely in his home and they definitely looked much chirpier than before.<p>

The young man appeared before them, calling them on his way which attracted their attention. "Mr. Gavin!" the kids called in unison, their face showing the radiance of gladness.

"Hello, Justice. Hello, Enigmar."

Trucy immediately cringed at the name. "My name is Trucy!" she yelled, a bit offended, and then ended everything with a short cough.

Apollo tried to shush her, but Mr. Gavin didn't really mind as he let out a little laugh after the boy started his coughing session along with his sister. "All right, Trucy," the man continued, not a bit shaken by the girl overreaction. "Do you both enjoy being here?"

Hearing the question, Apollo really wanted to scream of joy, to be saved by such kind hearted man, even though they were completed strangers to him. He got a hold of himself and simply replied: "Yes, Mr. Gavin! Thank you for your kindness!"

Gavin crossed his arms at the answer, squinting serenely at the boy. "And now might I remind you that I need to discuss with both of you, because I've got many questions for you."

The boy gulped at the comment. He never really liked being questioned because he never felt prepared to answer them, but he sensed that maybe Mr. Gavin will go soft on him since he seemed to be the soft type, even for a hunter. He had to remind himself that his mother was quite a soft woman as well, and she was still a hunter.

"Let's begin, shall we?" Mr. Gavin started with his permanent, angelic face. "Tell me, why are you not living with a foster family? I would have imagined the police found you a new family."

Lost in his deep thoughts, Apollo placed a finger on his forehead. It took him a while to find the best answer, but he decided to go with the truth. Mr. Gavin deserved to know everything as their rescuer, after all.

"Some evil attorney stole the legacy of our family, so we lost our home and everything. The police found us a new foster home, but the new parents didn't care about us and there was an older, mean guy who wanted to… huh… touch private parts on my sister, but I saved her and we fled the foster home together. That's when we were attacked and you saved us. Thank you, sir!"

"No need to thank," Mr. Gavin kindly added. "It should be a common sense to save people from trouble, especially from vampires. Now, don't you have other relatives around somewhere?"

"Not that I know," Apollo added, albeit a little wistfully. "I know Uncle Zak and Uncle Valant had no family, and my Mom's dad died when Trucy was still a baby. And well… Mom's no more… and I have no dad, I was told he died when I was a baby too."

"That's unfortunate. And you spoke about an evil attorney who stole your legacy. Can you tell me more about him?"

At the mention of the question, Apollo shut his fists in frustration. He was almost growling in resentment but he went back into more sickling choking sessions. Clearly, the boy detested that man of law. "I remember him; he has an evil name. His name is Davon Malone!"

Once again, this didn't seem like a surprise to the young man. There was a sarcastic smile appearing on his lips at the declaration of the name. "Ah, Davon Malone," Mr. Gavin expressed. "I know few people of the law, and Malone is one of them. Not a good name, I might add."

"Why do you need his name?" the boy asked with a perplexed expression.

"Oh, nothing important. I'll speak about the man to my other friends. They really love to hear gossips about him."

Mr. Gavin took a short break before he continued his questioning. He took a deep breath before the next question. "So you two are basically homeless orphans, am I right?"

Apollo only nodded. I didn't feel like answering that question as he didn't really like to be labelled as a homeless kid.

"I see," Mr. Gavin replied, but slowly, he directed his calm stare above with a seemingly determination visible in his eyes. "However, Justice, I saw you in the park when you defended your little sister with all your might. You have the potential to be a remarkable hunter, just like your family. You have a fast reaction; somehow this is what's lacking from many hunters. I understand if my next question will not prompt an immediate answer, and I take no offense to that."

"So, Apollo Justice, do you wish to join my hunter firm?"

Just like a lightning that struck him, Apollo's full spine shivered of shock. He entered into another coughing mode before he swallowed a large amount of air to attempt stopping his barks. It seemed to work, but still no direct answers came to him.

"But, sir! How can someone like me possibly help you in a hunting session?" the boy declared, a bit uncomfortable. "I mean, my mom taught me a bit, but only for self-defense! I can learn, but it'll take a while!"

Mr. Gavin's smile curled up further. That was actually the kind of answer he was hoping for. If the boy had responded with something about himself "being too young" or "being too afraid", he'd consider his own offer. This answer meant that Apollo was a courageous boy willing to help him, and that was enough. After all, he did protect his sister from the bigger dangers.

"I can teach you all I know about the job," Mr. Gavin revealed. "Even if it takes all the time you need, I know you can do it."

Unsure what to think, Apollo turned to his sister who didn't really pay attention to all the questioning. To her, their discussion sounded too complicated for her childish mind, but she could see the confusion in her brother's eyes, and she simply hugged him to calm him down. That was her solution to the grownups' problems, and it always worked like charm. Most of the time, at least.

But that was exactly what Apollo needed, and he smiled at her, giving her a short hug back.

He was going to need more hunting skills to protect her, and helping Mr. Gavin seemed to be the best way to get better.

The boy turned back to Mr. Gavin who still patiently waited a response which will satisfy his need. "Yes sir, I accept!" Apollo finally replied, enthusiastically.

With that, the man gently stroked the hair of the two kids, which Apollo innocently tried to shoo the hand away from his head. "Then this settles everything," Mr. Gavin declared, all pleased. "Justice, Trucy, I welcome you to my firm and my home, your new home."

The silence suddenly reigned in the room for few seconds before a short whimper then another awkward cough broke the peace. Both kids were losing themselves to their blissful emotions before they went to squeeze the adult man between their arms, not ever stopping to thank him for his goodwill and everything. How was it possible to meet such an angel on Earth? Of course, they had just met one, they do exist!

As the siblings kept hugging the man, a small, faint sneer escaped from his mouth. Now that the boy and the girl were part of his "family", he'd definitely be able to use their little Gramarye power for his own use and profit. He'll just have to teach them how to use their perceiving skills to properly distinguish those horrible creatures of the night from the humanity.


	4. The Psychology of Vampires

_You thought Kristoph was a saint? Well, maybe, maybe not! Also, Chapter 2 was supposed to be much longer, but it was getting too long so I just put the rest of chapter 2 parts in chapter 3. Meaning Chapter 3 is shorter than 1 and 2. Have fun with more familiar characters!_

_I admit, the first part of this chapter is totally uninspired._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 3: The Psychology of Vampires**

Date: May 6th 2015, 1:23 PM  
>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Robotic Laboratory<p>

"Simon! You came as promised!" a little girl yelled as she ran toward a young man to hug him.

The other one laughed at the girl's enthusiasm. "Hey there, Cykes-dono!" he called, almost choking when the girl squeezed him a bit too tightly. "I wouldn't miss a day without seeing you!"

After the little girl released her man, he slowly stood up and turned his head on the side to see two older women who greeted him, though one of them had her usual, mocking face toward him.

"There, there, Simon," the purple haired woman gently spatted out with a small grin. "You shouldn't be lying to poor Athena about missing a day! I mean, you hadn't come here since a full week!"

The little girl, Athena, decided to go along with the one she'd call her aunt. "Auntie Aura is right, Simon!" Athena spilled out with a slight frown. "I missed you! And Mommy missed you too!"

The other, more serene woman gently lowered her hand on the little girl's mouth, faking her strict air. "Athena," the woman started, trying to hide her smirk. "You shouldn't speak for people when you're not even sure of what they are thinking! Who told you I missed him?"

Little Athena let out a quiet "Aww Mom!"

At the same time, the young man politely bowed to the woman who seemed to be Athena's mother. "It's always a pleasure to meet you, Metis," Simon humbly greeted.

The other woman, Aura, started to laugh in a scornful manner. "C'mon, little brother!" she started. "Why can't you be as humble with your older sister? I'm your elder too, after all!"

Simon smiled at his sister's comment. "Well, Aura, unless you wanted to be called Blackquill-dono…" he said.

But behind this charming façade of a fun meeting between two women, a girl and a male teenager came the duty of a young senior high school student named Simon Blackquill. He came for his weekly meeting with the scientist named Metis Cykes, a genius psychologist and a talented pharmacologist. The young man came to know the woman and her daughter, Athena Cykes, thanks to the professional relation his older sister, Aura Blackquill, a prodigy engineer in programing and robotic, had with Metis, as both women worked together so they could use their different talents to conceive perfect robotized machines. One of their most interesting researches was called, in a charming way, PONCO, which stood for Psychological Observation and Navigation Companion. The future robot will serve as a friend to any human beings it will meet, as well as an infinite encyclopedia and guide for the Space Center.

In addition to be a human's companion, it will be able to feel the emotion of human beings from their heartbeat and recognize their face.

Metis had to thank her own daughter for this last PONCO feature idea. In fact, the little girl was born with a kind of talent unlike many other children: Athena could feel the emotions from others around her by their heartbeat with her fine, special hearing sense.

Unfortunately for the little girl, her life became harder and harder when she had to walk around crowds of people or even when she went to school. She was overwhelmed by tons of emotions emanating from all wandering around her which prevented her from having a decent social life. Metis was so dazed by the sorrow to see her daughter suffer, and she did everything, aside of her assigned researches, to make her daughter's life as comfortable as possible. One way of doing so was to create some kind of huge headphones that suppressed the surrounding emotions around her. Another genius invention was to create a small collar device that would help her to analyze other people's emotions, a device only her daughter could use.

That day like all other days, Simon did not come visit the Space Laboratory to visit Athena, but to have a meeting with Metis about using psychology in court, since he was studying to become a prosecutor. Awe by the work of the genius scientist, he knew he could make use of psychology when questioning witnesses and accused ones.

Much to Athena's chagrin, she watched the teenager and her mother entered together in another room before letting the door close itself behind them. The little girl gripped Aura's coat to win her attention, which worked. "Untie Aura, how long are Mom and Simon going to be inside?"

Aura giggled and wildly stroke the girl's hair which somehow annoyed Athena, though she took no offense from it. "Heh, don't worry about them," the engineer started. "They are speak about law and stuff, you know, adults subjects! Unless you want to listen to them discuss about grownup stuff for hours, I'd avoid their discussion, kid!"

"Well, that sounds pretty boring!" the girl frowned, leaving an impatient sigh at the end to show her dissatisfaction.

* * *

><p>The Cosmos Space Center was renowned not only for being a tourist attraction, but it was also home to many scientists and engineers, usually the bests of the country, as well as having employed many famous astronauts and having successful space missions that would put other countries with space programs to shame. Space missions in that very space center were one of the biggest prides of this country's government, and because of this, a huge amount of public funds were being put in this very place for the most advanced technologies of its time.<p>

Few employees who made it their home included Metis and Aura. Because of this, Athena found this place rather boring, knowing the whole center by heart. Not to mention she was never a fan of space and astronomy in general. She was unable to socialize with the people working in the center, but somehow, there was something different about that teenager, Simon, whom she got to know thanks to the partner of her mother. Maybe it was because he was an adept to psychology in general, thus being able to deal with a recluse little girl like herself.

What Athena liked from the young man was also the fact he kept having amusing conversations with her. Even when she couldn't find any conversation idea to start with him, he'd be the one to initiate a new, interesting subject to speak about, despite the girl being only a small child of six years old and the teenager being ten years older. Most adults would simply ignore the girl or speak to her as if she was a toddler, but Simon was definitely different from the others.

And that day was no exception. Even if Simon knew most of the public parts of the space center, he'd ask Athena to give him a guided tour around the place and all the information she was familiar with about each visited rooms. The girl loved to help people so much! If she wasn't such a shy girl, she'd be an interesting guide of the center.

Even though Athena did not like science very much, she still took pride of her mother's studies because she acknowledged that very few people in the world had as much knowledge as her, and Simon knew it. That day, he decided to initiate one of her most favorite subjects.

"Can I ask you a question, Cykes-dono?" Simon asked her, a smile appearing on his face.

"Of course!" she replied, her eyes shining with enthusiasm. "What's your question?"

Simon let out a small cough before he began with his question. He was expecting her answer to be a long one, after all. "So, tell me, can you tell me more about your mother's researches?"

"Yeah! Well, she has many researches, like artificial intelligence for our friends the robots, emotions in humans and emotions in vampires too! Why are you asking? I mean, I told you many times already!" she finished her sentence with a chuckle.

They were answers he expected, but he wished to make her talk a little more since she seemed to enjoy it. "Oh, I simply forgot!" Simon revealed with a laugh. "Please tell me more about her researches on the psychology of vampires."

With this, Athena took a deep breath before she started speaking again. "Well, Mom says that vampires have the same emotions as us humans, but there's one big difference: the vampires have no heartbeat so I can't feel their emotion, but they still have tensions and stuff like that! Like, if you use those things we put on our head to check our brain activity, we'd still see things moving!"

Simon carefully listened to every words of her. Vampires were always considered evil creatures that were only known to feed on humans and animals' fresh blood; a stigma of this world. But it was seen a controversy to consider that vampires had feelings just like humans, as if there were good and bad vampires wandering around this Earth.

Athena continued. "Not all vampires feed on human! Since humans and vampires are so alike, some vampires only feed on animal! Mom says that when someone is turned into a vampire, they can't turn back being human, but if they don't want to be all evil and savage like a wild hungry animal, they need to start getting fed right at the start by drinking animal blood and never be hungry! Because hunger is what causes them to be evil!"

The interest in the young man grew even more as she spoke. According to this girl, there were really good vampires. Then why did people only meet the evil ones? "So, Cykes-dono, if I were to turn into a vampire, if I don't want to succumb to the bloody instinct of a hungry predator and hunt for humans, I'd have to keep eating animal fast after I'm bitten?"

"Yes! I'm glad you understand!"

"That's… very interesting, indeed."

"But most of new vampires don't know about this, so many become evil and hunt humans for blood! It's so sad for them! They can't control themselves, and they are lost forever, and hunters go after them to kill them!"

The teenager couldn't help but notice the hint of sadness in her voice. It appeared that Athena was really compassionate for these creatures. She went on with more fascinating information. "Mom told me she once met a vampire who saved her, and that's how she decided to study vampires and their emotions! Because many of them are stuck by their instincts, she wanted to use her science talent to create a medication to control their hunger and stuff! That way, the vampires won't need to feed on blood and kill more people! And they will be able to live with people in peace!"

It was hard for Simon to imagine a world where both humans and vampires could live in peace since many individuals had a brutal story to share about vampire experiences: death of a family member or a friend by a vampire, someone in their neighbor died to a vampire, a popular celebrity fell under the fangs of vampires, etc. Things were even worse when an acquaintance of theirs become one of these creatures.

But what this bright, little girl appeared to explain was that people shouldn't judge others because they belonged to a species of the sort.

In the end, it was no different than within the human world. You could find an extremist group who wanted to make their ideals spread around the world by any radical means, then people would start blaming the whole nation of a country or region where the extremist group was born, because humans loved to blame an entire nation.

And because of that, maybe humans were no better than any of the so-called "creatures of the night".

Even so, each species had to protect their kinds since it was a part of the natural world, and Simon was also training himself to become a successful hunter one day since he was quite skilled with the sword and pistols. He also had his wish into becoming a successful prosecutor, with the analytic psychology as his own extra weapon. However, Metis's researches changed his way of thinking about the vampires, and he recognized he had to only hunt the "evil" ones, those who posed a problem to humans' safety.

One of the best ways for a hunter to find an evil vampire was to use a sample of flesh blood, usually their own for safety, so they'd attract them with their strong sense of smell. However, a talent like Athena's would surely come in handy if they were to hunt for vampires as she'd knew, right off the bat, that one individual was a vampire, no matter how hard they'd try to hide it. As mentioned, vampires have no heartbeat, and how they were still "alive" without a heartbeat was still a mystery. The only answer to this, according to Athena, was that "vampires are magic!"

In a way, vampires were really magical, in a mysterious way.

* * *

><p>Date: May 9th 2015, 7:42 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Kitchen

Apollo didn't really mind making dinner all the time, even during school days to which he finally got to return thanks to the kindness of Mr. Gavin for their new, steady lives. After all, his little family had been given a home, clothes and food for free. Trucy had now a new, furry friend which she could play with when he went to school, leaving her, somehow, alone at home (not really counting Gavin because he was a deep sleeper during daytime).

What bothered him was that Mr. Gavin himself never tried to eat a single meal he took so much effort to make. However, the hunter had mentioned something about not having time to eat and having an eating disorder. Instead, the young man pretended that he had to eat in a specific and special place where they served food for people having his own eating disorder which was open every days and every hours. Apollo thought something seemed fishy about this, but his genetic perceiving skill and his bracelet never picked up anything suspicious about his sayings, so what Mr. Gavin said must had been true.

That was not the sole thing which made him doubt the man. The boy knew that being a hunter full-time probably forced him to slumber all daytime. Yet, he noticed the man always locked his bedroom door when doing so, not to mention about his curtains that were certainly very, very dark and thick and hid the sunlight pretty well, so well it was almost the total darkness. Once again, Mr. Gavin simply answered that his eyes were sensitive to light because he had been so used to a night life. And aside, many night workers had to use that type of curtains to have their good day sleep, like any usual day workers.

Once again, he could not perceive any lies.

Sometimes, there were so many doubts about the man he joked to himself that Mr. Gavin had everything to be a vampire. But of course, how was that possible? If he was one, he would probably have eaten both him and Trucy since the beginning. Also, why would a vampire hunt other vampires? No species would hunt their own kinds!

Well, human beings were an exception to the rule, of course.

One day, out of the blue, he remembered Mr. Gavin had noticed how Apollo kept checking his golden bracelet with an odd manner. Curiously, the man decided to speak about it.

"_Is this bracelet yours, Justice?" the man asked, gentle as always._

_The boy fiddled with his jewel piece at the mention of it. He blushed since he seemed to have taken pride of it. "Yes sir, it's mine!" Apollo answered, excited to speak about it. "Well, actually, it's my mother's, but since she had two of them, she gave one to me! She was going to give the other one to Trucy when she will be older, but… well now the other one is lost with my Mom…" He appeared to be a little more comfortable when speaking about his late family now; he didn't even flinch at citing his mother._

"_Ha, ha! Are you telling me this is a bracelet for girls?" Mr. Gavin teased._

"_Hey! No, of course not!" Apollo protested. "Nevertheless, the boy calmed down a bit after. "Well, now that you mention it, it's kinda girly, but, there's a reason why I keep it!"_

"_Really? By all means, please enlighten me!"_

"_Isn't that obvious? That's my mother's memento!"_

_Apollo's answer only led to few moments of complete silence, without counting all the TV noises of the cartoon Trucy was watching all alone. Mr. Gavin didn't appear convinced about the reply, and he looked like waiting for another answer, a real one._

"_Is something the matter, Mr. Gavin?" the boy asked, perplexed._

"_Justice, I feel there's more to it than being a simple memento," Gavin declared._

"_Ah yes," Apollo gave up. Mr. Gavin had been too kind with him and his sister, and the man deserved to get a real answer. "Actually, you might find it hard to believe, but this bracelet helps me with a talent my late grandfather, my mother, my sister and I all have!"_

_To Mr. Gavin's eyes, it sounded as if speaking about the power he had was like getting a heavy secret off the chest, and the boy somehow appeared to feel great about it. He pursued his explanation._

"_When people lie or have something to hide, they usually feel tense, and I can feel their tension with my bracelet. It also helps me to find their nervous tic if they speak to me and lie about something. Even if it's a very small tic, I can still see it, because, well, I have a very good sight!"_

_Mr. Gavin appeared thoughtful about it. In reality, he was already aware of the Gramarye power that flowed through their veins, but he wanted to hear about it from their own mouth, to see if their explanation fitted with that he had been told._

"_Your power and your eyesight are genetic talents, am I right?" the man asked._

"_Yeah!" the boy exclaimed blissfully. "My Mom once told me our eyesight was much better than normal people's eyesight, like, huh, how can I say this… Like we can see moving objects very clearly when we focus!"_

_Suddenly, a frown appeared on the boy's face once he returned his attention to his bracelet. "But it's uncomfortable sometimes!" he revealed. "I mean, since I can feel the slightest tension from others, I become tense along with them, so I get weird feelings when I focus on too much people, so I try to ignore them! It's all better after!"_

_A soft giggle escaped the man's lips. The boy's innocence was so obvious this made him feel pity for the kid. The way he spoke about their power made it look like it was okay to be different from everyone when you had special powers, even if using it too much could be a bother._

Apollo still remembered of their discussion like yesterday. He enjoyed so much speaking with Mr. Gavin. He always wisely listened to him and, to make things even better, he perceived no tension, no lies from his rescuer.

And that was why he would never gave any doubt on the man, not anymore. Mr. Gavin was an angel, one who had saved him and his little sister, fed them, clothed them.

Today was a Saturday, and with no school day upcoming tomorrow, Mr. Gavin promised to bring him to his hunting session today. The hunter knew that, with his powers, he will be able to find vampires much easily than a usual hunter. He knew that when a vampire will see a hunter with hunting equipment, they'd feel tense, and he will feel their tension too. That was so convenient for him and Mr. Gavin.

He couldn't wait to go and hunt for more spawns of hell! He'll get revenge for his mother and two uncles!


	5. Another Tragic Fate

_Things are getting happier in these dark times. You will also find a joke about global warming, but don't take it seriously. Also thanks to the new followers (and old ones too of course!) for following this story! :) I promise to finish this story one day! But I'm so sorry for making chapters so long! :/_

_Enter Klavier and Clay in this chapter!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 4: Another Tragic Fate**

Date: September 9th 2016, 7:23 PM  
>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room<p>

It had been more than a year since the arrival of the two Gramarye children in the Gavin's residence, and it felt like they had been living under the kind man's home forever. Life had never been so boring, which was, in a way, like a dream come true; a dream of a peaceful, dull world, where evil had been vanquished, and only the good remained. Actually, maybe not. There were still vampires around. Hunting sessions had never been more lucrative and money was entering fast in the Gavin Hunting Firm.

In addition to having an extra (although very young) hunter called Apollo Justice in the firm, sometimes another (young) extra decided to tag along, and the new one was none other than Mr. Gavin little brother, Klavier Gavin, a boy who was about two years older than Apollo and who still lived with his parents. He'd come to visit his big brother Kristoph during some weekends and vacations periods. There had never been so much confusing moments under their roof since Apollo had been so used to call older people by their last names, and by having the presence of two individuals with the last name of Gavin, he simply decided to call the little brother by his first name. That'd be much simpler.

In the end, Apollo was glad to have a new male friend of his own generation in his life outside school, though a bit on the sardonic side. In fact, Klavier had given him the nickname of "Herr Forehead" because of his famous two hair antennas in which he, each day, applied sturdy hair gel to give them that unique look which he was so proud of. It gave away a clear view of his apparently huge forehead. Thanks to Klavier's manner of speech, he was able to remind himself that his "mentor" had a German origin: that'd explain their bright blue eyes and their clear blond hair. How stereotypical!

On the other hand, he found it oddly mysterious that none of the brothers had a German accent, not even a little.

Klavier was a boy of many talents, and it sometimes made Apollo envious, though more like he admired his talent rather than grudging against him. In fact, Klavier not only have a good singing voice, even better than his older brother, but he could play the guitar very well. This didn't end here. Even though he dreamed of having his own musical band with his school pals and making tours around the world, he was skilled with the law in general and was already studying on the side to become a prosecutor, at the tender age of fourteen! And, finally, he was a skilled hunter!

At least he pretended that his last talent was thanks to his older brother's efforts. It started as a self-defense mechanism taught by Kristoph, but as the time went by, Klavier insisted to assist him in his hunting sessions.

Of course, their parents didn't know about this.

Mr. Gavin did not mind having the two kids at the same time coming with him. However, he had to keep reminding them that they must not speak about their hunting activities to anyone outside their circle of little family since both boys did not even reach the minimum age to start hunting. Instead, their kills were credited as Mr. Gavin's kills to make sure he got paid for them all. Of course, all the money the young man gained was also Apollo's since they lived together. Klavier was not bothered by not gaining any money from it. To him, those hunting sessions were mere playgrounds for him and a part of his dream of bringing justice in this world.

Sometimes, Apollo wondered if Klavier was some kind of broken character from an action game in which the player used some kind of cheating device to make him invincible with all maximum stats. Because the guy was good in everything.

Except in cooking. But that didn't matter much when his big brother didn't eat any of his food.

School had started recently last month, and this became a new world to Trucy who, luckily, had no problem with hanging around other children in her first preschool class. Because of this grand new event for the little family and because his little brother was visiting him on this wonderful Friday evening, Mr. Gavin decided to not have a hunting session and instead, wished to have a kind of "family" moment, all together. Apollo and Trucy loved those fun days where everyone get to hang around doing nothing dangerous.

Now and then, they were having a small fight on who was going to choose the channel they'll watch on TV, and no one agreed on which one. To settle everything once for all, Apollo and Klavier decided to have a battle of wits with their famous Rock, Paper and Scissors game. Deep in her heart, Trucy really wished Mr. Gavin will not win this round because the man always favored news and documentary channels, and those bored her to tears. At least Apollo had a preference for cartoons, but more of those actions packed ones, and Klavier always went with the famous violent series with real people in. Those TV shows scared her somehow, but the stories were still at least _much_ more enjoyable than real life news.

It was during times like these that Trucy wished the perceiving skills she and her brother had could at least make one of them win games such as this one. Alas, that game was based on pure luck alone. Extraordinarily, the oldest man always won that game.

Today was no exception.

All the younger ones let their arms fall down like a sinking, heavy, unstoppable rock as Mr. Gavin smirked at the kids with a strange satisfaction and took possession of the TV remote. Trucy almost insisted to steal Apollo's smartphone so she could find something else to watch on it, but her brother had finally managed to input a secret pin code so she couldn't use it anymore. The little girl sulked deeply, and she went even deeper in the couch, crossing her arms furiously.

So the news channel was stuck in front of everyone's stares. Klavier looked a bit interested, but what the news offered that day did not attract much of his attention. Apollo had his head pressed against his hands as if he was falling asleep, so did Trucy. Of course, Mr. Gavin was the only one who fully absorbed every bits of information that came out from the TV speakers.

Apollo seemed to pay no heed at all to the anchorman speaking. With such a dull and monotone voice, how could adults actually enjoy watching them? To him, there were mere men or women reading a printed text while moving their lips, with some boring sounds escaping their lips.

Until a name was caught by his ears.

Malone.

Suddenly, all his attention went to the talking anchorman, then to the picture that appeared beside him.

It was really… that accursed lawyer.

Davon Malone, the notary attorney who stole the Gramarye legacy from them. His family legacy.

From what he could make out, the man had apparently been devoured by a vampire last night.

There was a side of him that screamed good riddance. The society didn't need any more of a malevolent man who could only think of their own person, and the creatures of the night got rid of small garbage among humanity. At least they could be useful for it. However, a part of his mind still felt bad for the loss of a human being, because, let's face it; Mr. Malone was still a part of his own species, even if he was a rotten man to the core.

And, weirdly enough, he could have sworn he perceived a diabolical chuckle from Mr. Gavin. It was no wonder as the young man even told him a few times how he hated that man of law.

Now that the anchor man had won over the boy's attention, the next story attracted a bit more of his consideration in his eyes. This time, the journalist revealed how a newbie lawyer, precisely a defense attorney and part-time hunter named Phoenix Wright managed to prove the innocence of his friend, Maya Fey. She had been accused of the murder of his mentor, Mia Fey, whom was also the sister of the accused. All of that happened when all evidences pointed at her as the murderer. The lawyer not only succeeded to prove her innocence when all hope had left them, but he miraculously managed to find the actual murderer, a certain Redd White, a name apparently linked to a lot of famous people of the upper class.

Redd White of the Bluecorp Company, a powerful man no one dared to battle against.

Normally, that kind of news would simply pass through the boy's ear then get out from the other side without having retained any of these information, but this time, Apollo was left speechless at the accomplishment of a newbie. If some new guy in the profession managed to do something veterans could not even think of doing, then maybe anyone could too if they really tried hard enough. That man, Phoenix Wright, wasn't it? His eyes appeared to be hunting for the truth, to protect the innocents, to save people from false accusation.

He recognized that he was a passionate man.

Suddenly, he knew what he wanted to do when he'll get older.

"I'm going to be a defense attorney!" Apollo suddenly shouted, his chords of steel seemingly prepared for this sudden burst of energy.

Just like that, out of the blue, in a childish way, the big news came out. Everyone turned to him, wordless, silent as a wall. Apollo shook his head, a bit apologetic for having given everyone something close to a heart attack, then turned around all who stared at him with much amazement, or maybe it was disbelief.

Klavier decided to break the silence. "You, Herr Forehead, want to be a defense attorney?" the blond haired boy asked, still dazed. "Do you actually know what it takes to be one?"

Apollo's eyes were wandering around, ostensibly thoughtful, not so sure of himself. "I… don't know…" the younger brunette answered. "I guess you need to know about… law and stuff?"

Lastly, Mr. Gavin left out a soft giggle before he decided to speak. "That was… quite the spectacle you've just offered, Justice," the man added. "Youngsters of your generation dream of being an astronaut, a policeman, a most famous hunter, a hero of some sort. The idea of seeing you as an attorney… surprises me."

"Wait, wait, wait guys!" Apollo exclaimed. "This attorney guy, Phoenix Wright, is a hero too! He saved a girl from false accusation! And besides, I still like being a hunter and I'll stay a hunter forever! I just… want something else on the side… Well, just like Klavier!"

"Like me?" the older kid responded, calmly. "I'm flattered you see me that high, but I thought you were not fan of the law since your little adventure with that Herr Malone, ja?"

The younger boy, a little exasperated at them, decided to use his chords of steel to make himself appear more sincere of his sudden choice of life. "Hey, c'mon! I'm dead serious!" he protested. When he finally got everyone's grim attention, he calmed down. "All right, hear me out?"

Deep in his thoughts, like a wise sage, he took a long breath, almost closing his eyes. Mr. Gavin carefully observed his little protégé and noticed the passion in the eyes of the little one as he stared at his bracelet. It was almost as if he was cherishing the treasure left by his mother. The man finally understood the kid's choice.

"You know, I was always wondering if I could use my power to help out other people in need. I know that I can use it to find vampires lurking around in the dark and all, but I want to make another use of this power. If only I could use it to find… the evil humans in a courtroom and their lies, they would be stuck in there, and they'll have to face the truth. I'll catch criminals with this, I'll find the truth and I'll save more people in need!"

"And if a man like Mr. Wright can find the truth like that without the need of genetic talents, then maybe I can do it better!"

The expectation was always more dull than what he wished for, because no one said a thing, until, unexpectedly, Trucy spoke out, nearly all forgotten in this grownup discussion. "But, Polly, law is boring!"

The boy raised an eyebrow at his little sister's simple comment. Somehow, there was a truth in her words, but that didn't change a thing in his decision. To that, the Gavin brothers began to laugh softly, almost teasing and agreeing with her words, but with it, they made a decision too.

"Well, Herr Forehead," Klavier started, patting his shoulders. "I'll help you if you need me."

Apollo turned his gaze to Klavier in disbelief. Was the one he considered a sort of rival really helping him?

"Don't forget about me, Justice." Mr. Gavin added. "It will be a pleasure to help my little protégé after all. I'll do everything within my powers to make sure you'll attend the most prestigious law school. Additionally, I know about the law too. Don't be afraid with your questions."

The brunette was dazed. He couldn't have met better people in the world than these two brothers. For a moment, he was almost glad that everything started in such tragic way, only to end up in this very comfortable residence, with a mentor and a rival willing to help such bastard children like him and his little sister.

He wanted to kiss everyone.

* * *

><p>Date: September 30th 2016, 10:05 PM<br>Place: People Park

This Friday night was probably going to be another of those hunting sessions with no primes around. It'd been around an entire week since Mr. Gavin did not have any kill. Maybe other hunters were being too effective in this month, or vampires decided to not run outside for blood lust with the colder season coming. And for some reason, the new season was even colder than usual. Sometimes, he wondered about the truth behind the so called global warming people kept speaking about. How on earth was the planet getting warmer when he was freezing?

Mr. Gavin trusted Apollo's skills enough to let him wander around alone for the hunt sessions, and today was the same story. Mr. Gavin would use Vongole's instincts to find a prey, and Apollo would use his own talent to find those tensed vampires. In their separate ways, that'd give them more chances to find a target to kill around the place.

He walked around for few minutes, his gun hidden in his pocket. The small cut he made on his arm to attract the creatures by their instincts was ready, always prepared for an eventual target. He lent his ears all around, carefully trying to make out every noises in this ocean of sounds in this park. Closer to him he'd hear some singing crickets, and farther he could distinguish some cars rolling like mad. As always, there were douche drivers everywhere.

Soon, he heard the park river close by. The sound of the current drowned most of the noises, but he could have sworn he heard someone crying nearby. When he slowly approached the sobs, he soon came to realize that the smell of blood was also getting more noticeable. He made sure he could easily reach his gun.

Hiding behind a bush, however, the display that awaited him made his heart tighten with sympathy.

A black haired boy with an odd, messy hair style had his arms around an inert woman on the soil, weeping incessantly as he leaned toward her even closer even though his face was already sinking into her.

There was a river of blood around the two of them, and the woman's eyes were empty, lifeless. Was the kid a vampire? Unlikely! Vampires couldn't cry, could they?

To make sure, Apollo let himself noticed by the boy with his gun set, pointing it at him and whispering loud enough to be heard. "You," the armed kid let out. "Look at me."

The crying boy let few more sobs escape before he turned his attention to the young hunter. However, the bloodied kid appeared to be, perhaps, too busy with his own tears and the woman he held dear to him to even be startled by the gun pointed at him. He didn't even try to avoid the weapon or make sense as he muttered few incoherent murmurs to himself, but Apollo was able to make out few words in this gibberish.

"Mom… Mooommy…"

But the hunter did not flinch. Instead, he kept his weapon ready to be fired at any time in case the other kid showed any sign of instincts. After all, vampire children existed... "Did you kill her?" Apollo asked, straight as an arrow.

"No…" the other one simply replied, using up all of his remaining efforts to attempt at having a decent conversation. "W-Why would I k-k-kill Mmmooom…"

A pause was made before the black haired boy continued. "V-Vampires… killed her…"

Despite all the emotion ranging around the boy, Apollo could not feel any tension of any sort, and never once did his bracelet reacted. Ultimately, he decided to believe him, but he still kept an eye around. If vampires had indeed killed the boy's mother, then they were probably still lurking nearby, unless Mr. Gavin and Vongole found them already, but he could never be too careful.

Trying hard to play the toughened hero, Apollo lowered his weapon and lent a hand to the other kid. "C'mon, we need to get out of here… They're probably still here…" he said, attempting to put his own emotions aside.

The young hunter gripped the boy's arm and pulled him higher. However, the kid didn't seem like he wanted to move from his spot as Apollo felt some resistance coming from him. "B-But Mom…"

"Come on!" the hunter insisted, now more concerned about the surrounding. "It's a sad thing to say, but we can't save your mother anymore… We need to-"

A sudden, growling nightmare leapt on the bloodied boy with a feasting hunger, causing the kid to scream in terror. Using his fast reflexes, Apollo focused intensely with his gun and directly pointed the weapon to the fast moving creature. It was about time he'd find a new prey! At the time, he had never been so glad to have the power of the Gramarye in his veins since he could easily discern the kid and the rabid vampire in the blur of the action. Then he shot, straight in the side of the creature's head.

As the evil being fell down like a lump on the filthy soil, a few moments of silence reigned in the park. For an instant, the crying kid almost had his eyes shining in admiration for the young hunter who just saved him from some kind of doomed fate. However, he soon went back to being the traumatized one and returned to his incessant sobs. Apollo let out a long, exasperate sigh after the adrenaline rush and he was now wondering how he'd proceed to calm down the other boy.

Yet, he knew this was going to be a very hard job as someone who also lost his family to these same brainless creatures.

There had been no time for Apollo to even think of words to tell the boy when an unexpected shadow threw him so powerfully in the air. There was a loud clang sound when the young hunter hit the ground on the concrete, his gun under him causing the metallic racket. He let out a cry of pain as he tried to get a clear view of the blurred surrounding, but the time went so fast around him he could not reach his gun that fell down along with him. He hopelessly watched as the creature that violently pushed him went straight at him.

Then, graciously, another shadow suddenly hurled the hungry creature away from Apollo, leaving him harmless from danger.

When his sight finally came back to him, he could clearly see a retriever dog, growling and holding tight the enraged vampire between her paws. As the night creature struggled hard to get away from the furry animal, a familiar being came, always calm as ever, adjusting his glasses and pointing the gun toward the vampire whose eyes opened wide in fear.

The smiling angel, yet again, released a loud bang in the cold, dark night.

Sometimes, Apollo wondered if he had some kind of invisible guardian angel constantly around him, alerting his underlings when he was in danger.

Both boys looked up to find the blond haired hunter along with his loyal furry companion who immediately went to rub her muzzle against the brunette kid for some consoling. The young hunter, smiling at the animal, promptly gave some amicable strokes against the canine's golden fur. "Vongole!" Apollo cried out, almost laughing.

The other boy looked at the young hunter. This kid left such an impression on him that he was captivated how he didn't look the least shaken by the recent event, even after virtually being the meal of another of those mindless humanoid creatures.

As Mr. Gavin slowly approached the two kids, his gentle gaze went to the black haired kid, compassion and a serene smile could be easily noticeable on the hunter who just saved him. He indeed looked like an angel for an instant.

"Hello, young boy," the young man murmured to the kid, his voice spoken like a messenger from the sky. "Don't worry about the vampires. I've scouted around the whole area and there are no more of them around hunting for blood."

Apollo excitedly snickered with the young man. "Mr. Gavin!" the kid called out. "We got two kills! This will be good for our pockets!"

Steadily as always, Mr. Gavin quietly squinted at his protégé in incredulity. "Indeed, but don't get too much excited. We need to help this boy first."

The second kid looked at the hunter trio, raising his eyebrows in amazement. After all the blood splatter and the near-death experience, all the two could think about was… money? There was no way these two were humans… Wait, maybe the man looked a bit more human than the other little guy, but…

The blond haired man returned his attention on the sobbing kid. "Come on, little one," Mr. Gavin continued. "I know it must be hard for you to lose your mother, but you need to get to safety fast."

Somehow, his voice was so soothing the boy relaxed down. There was such sincerity in his words that he felt completely safe around him. He weakly nodded to the man. Satisfied, Mr. Gavin turned to his pupil. "Justice, I need you to get this boy somewhere safe. Vongole will accompany you. You can take him home while I stay here and make the call."

Apollo obeyed promptly and snatched the boy's hand with the retriever following them behind. The other boy followed without question, trying to not think about the mother he just got robbed of, forever. The young hunter, lost in his own thoughts, was trying to find something to say on their way until he realized that if he wanted to bring his companion home, he'd at least need to start a conversation with him, and mainly, get his home address.

But he took so much time to ponder on what he'd ask that the other one started the conversation for him.

"H-Hey… Thank you for earlier…"

The young hunter slowed down his track, with Vongole decelerating down with him. He proudly grinned at the black haired kid. "Hey, no problem!" Apollo replied, a lot more determined now. "I was just doing my job! Say, what's your name?"

"Clay, Clay Terran… what about you?"

"I'm Apollo Justice, nice to meet ya, Clay!"

"S… Same to you, Apollo…"

* * *

><p>Date: September 30th 2016, 11:12 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room

In the end, both kids ended up in Gavin's residence as the boy was unable to let out coherent words on their way home. Aside, the condo was not too far from the park, so the faster they found shelter inside protected walls, the better. Clay kept murmuring something about "no", "daddy" and "sad", so instead Apollo proposed him to go to their own residence, to which Clay complied (maybe he really wanted to avoid his father at this time?). Apollo lent him one of his large t-shirt and a pair of pajamas since Clay's old clothes were soiled with too much blood.

"Sorry," the brunette started. "I wish I could give you better clothes, but you're a bit taller than I, so I had to give… these ugly things instead…"

Both were sitting on the couch with Vongole sleeping in Mr. Gavin's bedroom and Trucy was still fast slumbering in the remaining bedroom she shared with her brother. Apollo had opened the TV, but he soon realized it wasn't much of a good idea when there was nothing for children of their generation to watch at this time of the day. Not that it really mattered when the guest was just sitting around, emptily staring to the floor like a wandering spirit lost in the world of living. He uncomfortably still pondered what he could do to make the situation better, but the only thing he could do was to massage the back of his head while letting a mortified grin out, leaving out a small "heh".

Finally, more sobs were heard. Clay seemed to have come back to life and he let the emotions flow through his feelings. "Sniff… Mom…"

Attempting at reassuring him, Apollo gave him a pat on the back. "Clay… it's going to be fine…"

However, Clay almost shooed his hand away, his eyes watered down like a shower of sadness and frustration. His tone suddenly increased in volume. "No, it's not going to be fine!" he finally cried out.

Nevertheless, Apollo insisted to stay by his side, not even flinching from his place. He needed to be a hero in his own way, right now. "Clay, listen to me… I…" For a second, the boy dug deep in his thoughts to find the right words to cheer the other one up. Maybe his own experience might help. "…I don't have a mother either."

This attracted the boy's attention. He innocently left out a tiny "Huh?" before he stared at his savior. Now Clay's eyes, while still not fully dried out of his own tears, were filled with curiosity.

The sadness still hung around Apollo's voice as he spoke, but he made his best to keep an encouraging smile. "My mother… died to vampires along with my uncle and my sister's father. I also lost my grandfather and my father to vampires too when I was younger. But… I'm alive! When there's life, there's hope!"

"Everyone else has a mother at school, and sometimes, I'm wondering… Am I the only one to not have one?"

Right now, Apollo introduced a new, honest smile to his companion. "But, you know," he added. "When I start to feel that way, I yell at the top of my lungs! I holler 'I'm fine!', and you know what? I start to feel like maybe I really will be fine!"

Then he cried out loud: "APOLLO JUSTICE IS FINE!"

The black haired boy suddenly jolted out like someone who had just woken up from a nightmare. His heartbeat fastened at the speed of light. When everything calmed down, Clay almost felt relieved. He was nearly glad to know that his savior had also lived a similar experience to him, only to become quite an enthusiastic boy who turned out okay in the end. Maybe he will really be fine, just like Apollo.

The surprises hit him further as Apollo turned to him with an amicable grin. "Your turn, Clay!"

Clay sniffled a little more as he tried to shift back into his own control. Apollo was right. There was nothing he could do to bring his mother back, now that the deed was done, but he knew his mother would be even sadder if she were to see him in that state.

His fists set, his teeth gritting with effort, he let out a soft murmur. "C-Clay Terran… is f-fine…"

Apollo laughed at his attempt and patted the boy again on the back. "C'mon, Clay, you can do better! Remember, you're fine!"

This surge of encouragement gave him enough will to finally let his happier scream out. "C-CLAY TERRAN IS… FINE!"

And somehow, he had never felt so wonderful since the tragedy.

So proud to have given a little change of heart on the black haired boy, Apollo stood up pompously, his finger pointing the celling with happiness. "There you go!" he added, eying Clay on the side. "Now we're both fine! Let's say this again, all right?"

"All right!" Clay immediately replied, enthusiast as ever.

"APOLLO JUSTICE IS FINE!"

"CLAY TERRAN IS FINE!"

Their shenanigan lasted for few more seconds until Apollo yelped in surprise when someone unexpectedly grabbed one of his arms. Both boys stopped cold and turned their head behind to find a tired little Trucy, her dried eyes half-open, her mouth still dripping with some sleepy saliva, one of her hands gripping at her brother.

"Polly…" she mumbled, ready to fall asleep at any time. "You're noisy. Please stop."

The two boys went silent for a moment while eyeing her, and few seconds later, the big brother let out a small, sudden snicker. He then proceeded to stroke his sister's messy hair. "Awww!" Apollo left out, still quite embarrassed for waking her up. "It's okay, Trucy, go back to sleep. We're sorry."

The little girl, after moaning a huge yawn, obeyed with no further question and went back to their bedroom, proceeding to shut the door while keeping a curious eye on the black haired newcomer. Who was that guy, anyway?

Soon after, a clicking was heard from the entrance door, and then it opened itself, revealing the comeback of Mr. Gavin and another middle aged man, the latter one having a frown on his eyebrows and some tears in his eyes. The only thought that came to Apollo was "Who exactly was that man?"

Suddenly, he looked back at Clay who stared at the man, his gaze empty just like before, as he seemed to have fallen back into his original state of mind, into pure grief.

"D-Dad…" the black haired boy muttered as water began filling his sight once again.

The man, apparently Clay's father, slowly kneeled down to his son's level and opened his arms, welcoming the boy into a warm, long hug. The child sulked into his father's chest, holding the man tight while the latter held him closer, smoothly landing the palm of his hand on his son's hair, gently patting him.

"It's okay, Clay…" the man whispered to his ears as he started trembling. "Y-Your mother was a wonderful w-woman, but I'm sure now she's in a better place. I'm still here for you…"


	6. Downfall

_Once again, the previous chapter was supposed to be much longer. So instead, have a shorter Chapter 5. For some reason, this chapter was a pain to write._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 5: Downfall**

Date: October 10th 2016, 12:21 PM  
>Place: District High School, Schoolyard<p>

The boy scouted every parts of the schoolyard, but no sign of the one he was searching for. He swore he had seen him before when he started school earlier in August. These two hair antennas were just too obvious to forget and he knew that the brunette attended the same school as him. Thanks to the famous social media website and its awesome name search system, it confirmed the fact furthermore.

It had been about a week and few days since Clay had been saved by that Apollo and his mentor. He had absented himself from school and his everyday life from the outside world the entire time to mourn over the murder of his mother. Thanks to the young hunter advice, he had decided to have his own chords of steel sessions of shouting "I'm fine!" at home whenever the thoughts of his mother came back to him.

Of course he still missed her, but he told himself he couldn't grieve over her forever. If someone like Apollo lost all his family, save for his little sister, and still managed to hurl a sincere smile at everyone, then he could do this too. And aside, he had his loving father to support him and he had never been so glad to still have a direct family member alive with him. He now knew that he must never consider the ones he loved for granted.

He still remembered the day at the "firm" of the hunters, which was nothing more than a residence, when his father came for him with Mr. Gavin. He had wondered how did Mr. Gavin find out the address and phone number to call his father, but it appeared that all of that information were found on his mother. He also pondered how he knew he was with Apollo in the firm, but apparently Apollo himself sent him a text to tell him about it.

He had forgotten to thank Apollo and his master for everything they did since he had not said a single word when he left with his father. He wanted to make up for this and bought a deluxe chocolate box as a thank you gift. However, he needed to find Apollo first.

He walked among all the other boys and girls, all of them staring at him with their eyebrows higher, wondering why the heck he was holding a box of chocolate at school. Some of his classmates who were by chance on his way even went as far as teasing him by asking "Who's the lucky girl?" Little did they know the tragedy behind all of this…

Soon enough, his intense search for the antenna boy finally went fruitful. He could see him, sitting alone under the shadow of the great lone tree, on the outskirt of the schoolyard, calmly reading some kind of huge book. Clay had never been so glad to find him. "Hey, Apollo!" he shouted out, calling for his attention.

To his disappointment, Apollo did not turn back at his call, and suddenly, Clay felt a little too shy to approach the guy anymore. Maybe he was ignoring him on purpose, or he just didn't want to talk. Maybe…

Wait a minute. There were some kind of white cords reaching for his ears… Oh, headphones, that explained the silent treatment! Clay let out a sigh of relief and ran after the quiet, studying boy, calling him again, this time, much louder.

Thanks to his efforts, Apollo quickly raised his head upon hearing his name. He took off a headphone and turned around to see the one he had saved, rushing toward him. The brunette's lips immediately curled up at the sight of Clay. "Hey, Clay!" Apollo called back, waving back at him.

"Apollo! You remember my name!" Clay added when he finally reached the other boy who started to stand up to meet him.

Apollo laughed with a meek grin. "Of course I remember you, Clay Terran! Why shouldn't I?"

At the question, Clay slightly lowered his head on the side, scratching his neck in shyness. "Well, I didn't think someone as cool as you would remember someone so uncool like me…"

Hearing the word "cool" suddenly gave a chill to the young hunter. "Wait, you think I'm cool?" Apollo asked, still shocked.

"Of course!" Clay loudly answered. It seemed he had adopted the brunette's "chords of steel". "I mean, you're a hunter and you saved me! So, hum… I want to thank you… so I bought this box of chocolate for you!"

As the black haired boy held out the box to the other, Apollo stood still, silently watching the sweets, dumbfounded by the sudden gift. He was not sure what to say about all of this. A perplexed expression appeared on Clay when he noticed his companion's confused face. "Wait, you don't like chocolate?" the taller kid questioned.

"Well, I'm… flattered…" Apollo revealed, a bit on the shy side. "But… I wasn't expecting this… And also, you've thanked me enough times that day already, and your father thanked us too, so it was all right…"

At Apollo's comments, Clay looked a bit down. He really seemed to have worked hard to bring the gift, even though there might be some truth about the gift being a little "too girly" as the others teased.

"But hey, that doesn't mean I won't accept your gift!" Apollo abruptly exclaimed as he reached for the box, displaying another smile. Clay's eyes shined with delight. "I adore chocolates! And even better, why not sharing them with you? Come and sit down!"

The brunette quickly sat on the ground and watched as the black haired boy shyly followed him by sitting on his side. Excited about having some chocolate for dinner (because he had forgotten his lunch at home), he shoved his hands on the box cover to rip it apart like a joyful kid with a gift on his birthday.

The two guys initiated their sweet dinner, and goodness, those chocolates were extremely delicious. Laughers and enjoyment reigned on these two as they devoured the sweets together. The minutes went by, and it was almost as if they had been friends since forever, speaking of their own dreams. Apollo wished to become a successful defense attorney, defending the innocents from false verdicts, and Clay dreamed of becoming a renowned astronaut who will eventually go beyond the moon and even Mars. Soon enough, they'd both start speaking about everything and anything.

"That reminds me," Apollo started, his mouth still full of chocolate. "When I saw you in the park last time, I couldn't recall seeing you before. I mean, we are the same age and yet I've never seen you in my past classes, or even seen you in other classes…"

"Oh…" Clay said, cleaning his messy brown stain on his mouth with a napkin. "That's because we've just moved in the city this summer for my father's job, so that's why!"

"But you remember me as a student from another class!"

"Well, your hair antennas stand out!"

"That much?"

"Yes."

Apollo started to fiddle with his two pointy hair pieces, letting them fall in front of his face, his two dark brown pupils watching them innocently. "Well, I still like them!" he protested, chuckling.

Clay smirked like a silly hyena along with him, but after soothing down a little, a frown appeared on his face. "Say, Apollo, do other students know that you're a hunter?"

The smaller boy became a bit thoughtful at the question. Strangely, he stared at his weird bracelet for a while before he looked up above, toward the clear blue sky. It took him few moments before he gave an answer. "No, they don't."

The other one's eyes went wide, gasping at the answer. "Huh? Why not?" Clay expressed, shocked. "I mean, people will come and praise you for what you do!"

Slowly, Apollo turned to Clay, his stare filled with some kind of innocence and melancholy. "Clay, I'm not searching for praise. I just want to make a useful contribution in this world."

"Woah, so you just want to help people?"

"Yeah!" Apollo replied, enthusiastic, but his tone went down a little after. "Well, there's another reason why I can't really tell anyone. I mean, do you notice how… young we both are?"

"Well, duh, of course I do!"

"That's exactly it. Legally, I don't even have the rights to hunt vampires, at least not with a lucrative goal in mind. You need to be at least eighteen with a hunting license, and… guess you know that I don't have one!"

Because he wanted the young hunter to have the recognition he deserved, Clay suddenly wanted to object, with his index finger ready to prove him that laws couldn't stop him to gain fame, until he quickly admitted defeat after deeper judgments. "So, all the kills you do, I bet it's credited to your mentor?"

"Yep, exactly! That's why I can't really speak about it out loud. If the authority finds out, there's a chance Mr. Gavin will lose his license and his hunting firm! So, let's keep this a secret between us, all right?"

"Hey, no problem! I mean, you saved me, so there's no way I'll betray you!"

Unfortunately, their chocolate box was now empty of sweets, and both of the boys dropped their lips in disappointment. They would have liked to get more in stores right now, but they knew the school recess was about to end soon. However, before letting the school bell ring, a determined expression appeared on Clay, his two fists clenching toward the ground. His shoulders raised higher and he intensely stared at Apollo. The brunette watched the other boy, stunned at the sudden reaction and at how… silly he looked.

"Say, Apollo!" Clay began, his own chords of steel in effect. "Before we return to class, I just need to tell you… that I don't know much people here, and that I'm new and all! So let's be friends, okay?"

A silence was in place for a few seconds before Apollo burst out laughing. He let more giggles out before he finally gained control over his voice.

"Clay, I thought we were friends already!" Apollo revealed.

* * *

><p>Date: March 22th 2019, 6:45 PM<br>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Space Museum

Like a lost soul, Athena desperately tried to search for the one she considered her big brother. She kept calling him, only to get an empty answer. An employee watched her hopelessly and wished she could give the child a clear answer about the whereabouts of the man, but she hadn't seen him either. The little girl looked so much anxious to not find her "samurai" that, in the end, she used up all of her courage to ask the employee for an answer, but the woman simply shooed her away since she needed to clean up the museum.

Unsatisfied, Athena ran toward the main entrance, where she noticed one of her small friends around. "Ponco!" the girl called the other one, waving frantically at "her" while introducing her brightest smile.

Ponco was, in fact, the robotic product of one of Metis and Aura's main researches, but Athena had always seen the machine like a normal, live being. The small robot, upon hearing the call of her name, turned to the little girl and, interestingly, called the live one back. "Hello! Hello!" the robot greeted with a visibly enthusiast, childish voice as Athena went to give her a hug.

"Ponco!" the girl called again, intensely staring in the "eyes" of the robot, showing signs of worry to the machine. "Have you seen Simon? I was supposed to meet him today, but I can't find him!"

The robot spun her head around with her arm crossed, the screen of her face showing an expression of confusion. "Simon?" Ponco questioned. "I have exactly thirteen men with the first name of Simon in my database."

Athena laughed at the robot. "Silly Ponco! You know who I'm talking about! Simon Blackquill, of course!"

Ponco stopped spinning her head and to make sure she found out the answer to the little girl, a picture of a man appeared on her screen. "Is this the Simon Blackquill you spoke of?" the robot asked.

"Yes! That's him!" Athena replied with a clapping on her hands. "Have you seen him?"

The intelligent machine returned to her happy expression and started pumping her arms in the air to display joy. "Yes! I've seen Simon Blackquill!" Ponco revealed. "He said he was going to the robotic lab!"

Upon getting a finally decent answer, the girl went speechless. About twenty minutes ago, she was over there waiting for the young man. If she'd waited a little longer, she'd probably have met him already. She smacked her forehead before she turned back to the lab after thanking her little mechanic friend. She ran as fast as she could, ignoring all the people on her way. She'd even shove some around and she was getting annoyed stares everywhere. But she didn't care; her only wish right now was to see her male friend!

Soon, as she turned around the corner, one more door and she was there! Only if there wasn't something on her way to suddenly charge into. She brusquely fell down on the floor with a small headache. When she lifted her head up to see the thing she went into, she found the one she had been looking for!

Simon was on the ground, dazed by the small calamity. When he found the cause of the accident, he couldn't help himself but smile at his little friend. "Hey there, Cykes-dono, how have you been?" he greeted with a small laugh.

"Simon!" the girl called cheerfully, quickly getting up to hug him by his neck. "I heard you passed the bar exam!"

The samurai man gave her a little pat on the head. He entered a hand in one pocket to take out a new shiny sun badge. "Wow! That's beautiful!" Athena whispered in admiration, her eyes sparkling with marvel at the slight light reflect from the little badge. "That means you are now a prosecutor, putting the bad guys in prison!"

Happy to see Athena on such good mood, he decided to reveal a last thing. "This doesn't end here," he added. "I've just gotten my hunting license as a private hunter as well."

Athena almost squealed like a rabid fangirl. "You are so awesome, Simon!"

"I'm… flattered!" the guy laughed, blushing a little. "You know, I wish I could have these ears of yours, they'd be quite useful to find a prey!"

The girl nodded in agreement as he spoke. "Uh-Huh! I know, right?" Athena declared. "That's why, when I'll be older, I'll help you find the bad vampires! Spare the good ones, remember!"

Dumbfounded by the hasty revelation, Simon gulped. Since when did the girl want to be a hunter? He sighed. Exasperation could be hear from him, and Athena fell it too. "Cykes-dono, hunting for vampire is not a game, do you realize this?"

After hearing her friend's comment, Athena moped and crossed her arms in frustration. "Of course I know it's not a game!" she cried out in protest. "But if it's dangerous for me, it's dangerous for you too! I thought the bigger the team, the safer! And aside, I know I'm too young for this now. That's why I want to grow older before I do anything dangerous!"

After little Athena spoke of her words, his samurai soul started to kick in his mind. His conscience was trying to tell him that no girl, especially not the daughter of his mentor, should let herself exposed to such danger at night. However, part of his more humane side really wished this little girl could put her skill to use so it will make her happy. After all, happiness should be mandatory on everyone, and the girl definitely lacked some.

"So," the girl started, prancing left to right gleefully. "Are you going to announce this to Mommy and Aunt Aura?"

* * *

><p>Date: April 6th 2019, 3:06 AM<br>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Personal Cykes Lounge

There had had been better nights in this lounge, the "home" of the Cykes family. Tonight, exhausted, Metis had to deal with a certain daughter of hers who kept having nightmares, unable to keep her sweet dreams as she drifted away in the darkness. The little girl ranted how things, monsters and people were keeping her awake and that they wouldn't go no matter what. It was so tiring to the point that the mother was so tempted to use one of her sleeping pills, but of course, she would never do that to her own child.

Crying "Hallelujah!" was of her best interests when Athena was finally sound asleep like an immobile, silent rock, but for her own good, it was better remaining silent for the rest of the night. Metis, smiling at her sleeping child, gave a gentle kiss on her forehead, wishing her a sweet good night before she returned to her room, closing the door as soundlessly as possible before disturbing her much sensitive ears. Even if this was Saturday and she was given the day off, she still needed to act and be the mother her child needed by the morning.

Oh well, the sunlight of the morning was sure to come faster during the spring season.

To her dismay, as she fell aimlessly on her comfortable bed, a loud crashing sound came upsetting her cherished silence. Naturally, startled by the crash, she quickly grabbed her tool knife with a grunt, almost not even scared of what may come to her (maybe she was too tired to think in a way). She speedily made her way to the Robotic lab where the sound seemed to come from.

She did not expect the surprise that awaited her.

"Aura!" Metis cried out, horrified by the sight, her trembling hands dropping the small knife as it made a clung sound upon hitting the floor. The mother observed her friend who was limping around in confusion, a hand weakly leaned on a table with the other one holding the side of her neck, a warm flow of dark blood protruding from an unseen wound under her shaking fingers.

The leaned hand of the destabilized engineer finally gave in as Aura fell down on the floor with an unheard short cry. Metis leaped over her injured friend, checking for signs of what exactly happened to her. She remembered Aura decided to go for a nice girl time in the downtown for the Friday night earlier. Was the injury the result of all of this?

Then Metis saw it: a bite mark on Aura's bloody neck.

A vampire bite.

"M-Metis…" the distressed woman whispered, virtually crying of pain, her teary, terrified eyes watching the psychologist. It took all of her effort to simply call her friend. It seemed she was begging for help.

"Aura!" Metis called again, panicking but trying to keep her composure. "D-Don't move, stay here, okay? You've been bitten by a vampire, am I right?"

Once again, Aura's eyes refused to leave Metis's, and all the mother could see was despair and horror in them. "Am… Am I going to be… one?" the bleeding engineer asked in fear, her trembling lips almost unable to say the right word for the creatures of the night. "I-I-I mean… I'm still a-alive… and when b-bitten humans stay a-alive…"

Metis snagged a cloth on the table and laid it on the injury. She forced Aura to hold it with her hands as she got up and frantically rummaged through the laboratory cupboards until she found the things she was searching for.

The partial result of her side researches, the medications to make vampires part of the human life, the medications that will control their hunger and instincts.

Metis knew, and it was a common knowledge among the human beings and among the vampires as well. She knew when a human get bitten by a vampire and that the human does not die by the bite or by another means, the human is condemned to suffer the unfortunate fate of the immortality of the night, for eternity. And Aura will become one of them in a matter of minutes.

However, there was a solution to this, and Metis knew Aura did not have to succumb to the predatory instincts that would eventually hit her as soon as she will feel the hunger of the bloody feast. No, she made her solution as a part of her researches, and now, she was able to test it.

Quickly, Metis snatched one of her prized pills and carefully slipped it in the bloodied mouth. To her horror, under Aura's upper lip, she could see them: the newly formed fangs.

"Here, Aura…" Metis whispered, her gaze full of compassion, with a gentle smile appearing on her own lips. Aura looked at her as she nervously gulped the pill, and the stare Metis gave her strangely soothed her soul like she was the own kindhearted mother she needed in urgent times. "With this medication, you will live like a normal person, just like me, anyone else or your former self… Don't worry about your condition, you won't become like them with these pills, I can assure you. Trust me…"

"Metis…" a calming Aura muttered when she started crying on the shoulder of her redeemer, leaving a mix of teary and bloodied stain on Metis's robes. "T-Thank you for your presence… Thank you… for everything… But… please… don't tell anyone… Especially not my little brother Simon…"

A sigh escaped from Metis with her next reply. "But Athena will know…"


	7. A Man of Truth

_Is that why a 37 years old Aura still looks like a 20-ish woman? And yes, you can laugh at me for the defendant name's choice in this trial. Of course, this trial is based on an already existing in-game trial!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. __I also do not own the in-game scripts that can be found in this chapter__. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 6: A Man of Truth**

Date: April 19th 2019, 9:27 AM  
>Place: District Court, Lobby No. 1<p>

Phoenix Wright.

For his very first case, he was assigned to oppose the renowned defense attorney, the one who had successfully made his name through… quite special cases with special defendants. He was the one who succeeded into defending every single clients with a non-guilty verdict (although he was not sure how he'd consider the verdict of that Nickel Samurai actor last year). The blond man knew he was a good prosecutor, but as good as that defense attorney? He wasn't so sure of himself.

Maybe, yes, he had been deemed a genius by almost everyone, including his own family, friends and even few strangers. Yes, he was starting to form his own music band; he and his friends were already having a successful career in the show business with their first hit "Thirteen Years Hard Time for Love". Yes, he was still a not-so-legal skilled hunter on his spare time with his brother, despite being in the law himself. Yes, he had been admitted to the famed Themis Legal Academy, then he went to Germany for an additional two years study to pass the bar exam earlier than normal, and he succeeded at everything with fairly high scores. Yes, studying and exams were a breeze to him. Yes, he became a prosecutor at the tender age of seventeen.

But nothing could compare to the sudden nervousness he felt when he was now realizing he was being stuck between four soundproof walls, all alone, in a real courthouse.

Nothing beats the experience, because he had none, for now. So how could a nothing like him "beat" the experience like Wright?

Carefully, Klavier looked at his papers again, mainly the autopsy report and a thick written journal with a torn page near the end. Evidences, those were crucial evidences, of course. He quickly re-read the case summary. So, apparently, the defendant, Disha Ramgein, was a famed magician who had to kill his mentor on his dead bed in the hospital with a gunshot in the forehead. The witness, his "magic" partner Lavant Maragyre, will take the stand to make sure the accused will be found guilty. He hadn't known much of this Maragyre magician, but he hoped the man will be much of help for his first case.

After all, Klavier Gavin was going against the famed Phoenix Wright.

He then reminded of his meeting with his brother, just the night before in his new office.

_There was an unusual smirk across the older man's face when he spoke to his younger brother. "The attorney you'll face is not to be trusted," Kristoph told him. "Don't even give him the benefit of your respect. Listen…"_

_There was a small pause before he continued, and Klavier was all ears. In any case, he needed everything to win his first case, especially if the defendant was really guilty and that everything pointed at him. "There will be a special witness to the case. My friends of laws already spoke to him and arranged him in this case. I want you to call in this special witness, then…"_

Then he remembered. He knew the special witness will be waiting for his turn wisely and silently among the audience in the gallery. He'll only need to formulate a plan to call him when the time will be right. But when will the time be right, exactly?

Suddenly, the door of the lobby burst out open in a loud clacking noise, jolting the nerves of the new prosecutor with a joyful "Klavier!" coming along with it. The young man turned his glare at the entrance and sighed in relief when he noticed three familiar sightings coming close to him by running, a bit too fast for his taste. Soon enough, the three people nearly shoved into him, but somehow, Klavier didn't mind much. Actually, he felt gratified to see acquainted people; he needed the encouragement.

"Fräulein, Herr Forehead, Herr Terran!" the prosecutor called out, welcoming the younger ones with open arms. The moment almost felt cheesy. "What are you doing here?"

Clay had actually met Klavier few times, but he was still not really familiar with the little brother of his best friend's mentor. He gave a little distance compared to the two others who were visibly more excited than him.

"Klavier!" Apollo called out, bliss in his shiny eyes and a grin plastered on his face. "We came to wish you good luck for your first trial! You're a great lawyer! Don't let Mr. Wright's experience get you down!"

The young prosecutor appeared grateful by the praise given by the one he could practically call his law apprentice, but what attracted his curiosity was not their sudden presence, but Trucy's new attire. She looked… like a caped magician, especially with that… stereotypical silk hat over her head.

"Fräulein?" the blond haired man addressed to the little girl with an odd interest. "Is… there a special event? Why are you dressed like this?"

A sentiment of glee took over the little girl when Klavier mentioned her new costume. "You noticed?" Trucy yelled out, all pleased. "I get to perform at the Wonder Bar soon, so I needed to try these new clothes! Did you forget that my parents were famous magicians?"

Klavier went speechless for few seconds before he commented. "Ach, I knew that, but I wasn't aware you actually knew tricks!"

The magician girl crossed her arms in doubt, looking above on the side. "Well, Internet searches and watching re-runs of our family troupe taught me new things, but, hey! A magician never reveals their secrets!"

As soon as she mentioned the word of "secret", her older brother cringed before he returned his attention to the prosecutor. "Yeah, never bother asking her," Apollo added, his voice seemingly a little annoyed. "She won't even tell me."

"That reminds me," Clay finally spoke out in spite of his shyer feelings among them. He looked like having a clever comment to add to their silly discussion. "I heard the accused is a famed magician and he has a daughter about your age Trucy!"

Apollo looked at him with a higher eyebrow. "Yes, and?" he commented, wondering where exactly his friend was going with the statement.

The black haired teen grinned wide. "Do you know the multiverse theory, where there is an infinite amount of universes in the universe? I bet that in one of those universes, we'd see you and your father in this very courtroom instead! It'd be kinda neat, don't you guys think?"

Ah yes, now Klavier remembered a thing about that boy: he was a fan of space and anything related to astronomy. How silly, their last names coincided with all of their dreamed goals. Apollo Justice wanted to bring justice to criminals and the creature of the nights. Trucy Enigmar wished to be a famed magician like her parents, and of course, magicians' tricks were an enigma to the normal world. Finally, Clay Terran dreamed of being an astronaut, and he was aware of the word Terra that was basically related to the planet Earth.

It would have been even more fun if his own last name "Gavin" meant anything.

But enough of the childish discussion, he had a trial to win!

"Thank you for your support, guys, but I need to prepare for this case!" Klavier finally let out in exasperation, trying his hardest to not insult his friends' encouraged words. To his luck, none of them took his comment in the wrong way.

"Of course!" the brunette teen exclaimed, answering his mentor's brother's remark. "You should go all prepared! We'll be rooting for you from the gallery! And also, don't tense too much, it's annoying!"

His last bit of words prompted Apollo to grip at his bracelet, and Klavier noticed it well. Damnit, and there he thought he'd be able to hide his little fear for the first trial, but no tension or slight anxiety were able to escape this boy's attention.

Seeing the two male teenagers and the female child, he wished to have an adult presence at least, someone like Kristoph to come and encourage him with wise, older people's words. He knew Kristoph was a full-time hunter, but he could have at least watch his little brother's first trial.

* * *

><p>Date: April 19th 2019, 10:00 AM<br>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 7

"Court is now in session for the trial of Disha Ramgein."

"The defense is ready, Your Honor."

Then silence, utter silence.

Suddenly, all stares were turned to the prosecutor bench. Strangely, the young, newbie lawyer was there, unfazed by the silence that reigned over the big room and the attention he managed to draw toward him with no action at all. Still, there was one person who could feel the intense tension emanating from the poor prosecutor, and Apollo thought Klavier was actually very good in showing off his cool despite all of the anxiety he was feeling. No wonder he was a skilled young man in the show business by acting out.

The judge, still glancing at the prosecutor, returned a remark. "Is the prosecution ready?" His deep, strict voice echoed through the wide room.

A voice finally escaped. "…I was just thinking, is this what all the fuss is about? Bit of a buzz-kill, really."

From the gallery, Apollo's palm went to hit his forehead as his friend continued his interaction with all of the people of the law present. While Klavier's acting was top-notch, his speech felt more than a little cheesy for his taste and he wished the blond young man would just stop wasting his time and just go over with the trial. He wanted to see his friend win, but at the same time, he knew what mattered was the truth behind the whole story.

Even if Klavier was to lose his first trial, at least an innocent man could have avoided a guilty verdict.

However, Apollo was also attentively watching the defense attorney, the famous Phoenix Wright, whom he still remembered as the one who inspired him to eventually follow the same path into defending the innocents. There was something different about him today. Unlike in that old story he saw about two years and half ago on TV where he remembered a more passionate Mr. Wright, the one who stood in this very room appeared a bit… too much confident, almost rash about his own skills as a lawyer.

Perhaps experience was a bringer of corruption, he thought.

The tension seemed to have disappeared when the prosecutor spoke. Eventually, there was no need to hide the fear anymore.

Klavier was really good.

"…Achtung, baby. Time to call on the opening act," the prosecutor exclaimed, now self-assurance flowing through his spirits. "What was his name again? Ah yes… Detective Gumshoe! Hit it!"

Indeed, it hit the young teen when hearing the name of the detective. When a tall, scruffy-looking detective appeared on the witness stand, he finally remembered.

Apollo turned his eyes to Trucy who seemed to be in deep thought just like him. Then, in turn, she rolled her stare to her older brother. Whispering to her ears, Apollo spoke first. "Trucy! That detective, Mr. Gumshoe…"

"Yes, yes!" Trucy yelled out with a strange contentment, pointing at the new, scruffy man standing on the witness place. "I remember Gummy man! He's Gummy man!"

The sight of the tall detective suddenly brought them back to the old days, those fateful days when their family had forever disappeared to the hands of the monsters of the night like a terrifying nightmare, the nightmare that became a reality. When everything was dark and sorrowful, when hope was lost, there was the man who brought them light when they needed it. Trucy attempted to cry out for his attention so the man will come see her and play with her like in those early times, but Apollo immediately shushed her to make sure the trial continued without any delay.

Yet, Apollo really wished he could speak to the man at least once before they'll part ways again to thank the man for what he had done four years earlier since he never had the opportunity to do so.

"Name's Dick Gumshoe. I'm a homicide detective down at the precinct," the detective started, seemingly more assured than ever before turning to Mr. Wright with a cynical grin. They didn't look that friendly, the two of them. "Hey, you!"

"H-Huh? Me?" the defense attorney let out, a bit surprised.

"Today's the day, pal," Detective Gumshoe stated. "Today, I win, and you lose!"

Definitely not friendly toward each other's.

The silly behavior between the two older men of law brought intervention from the young prosecutor. "Herr Detective," Klavier calmly called out. His voice was hiding a certain exasperation. "This is my stage. Can the antics."

This prompted the detective to leave out a small "Huh?"

Klavier continued, a bit more harshly this time. "All this 'hey you'-ing and such. I could care less about your history together."

After witnessing the unsure and somewhat victimized response from the poor detective, both Apollo and Trucy childishly went to sulk on their bench, feeling bad for the man and how he was being treated by their own friend. Clay laid an eye on them and noticed the strange reaction from both of them, wondering why they were suddenly looking so down, almost frustrated. The space fanboy, not really interested into the trial so far, went to look upon his best friend.

"Hey Apollo!" Clay addressed. "You seem a bit angry."

Apollo continued to watch the witness stand, his crossing arms refusing to defuse themselves. "I don't really like how Klavier threats that detective," the brunette simply replied, pretty much grumpy.

A perplexed stare from Clay glared at Apollo. "But that detective has been acting a little childish, no?" the space boy declared. "And, hey! I think you're starting to act that way too!"

Upon listening to his friend's comment, Apollo couldn't help but scratch his neck in a little shame. "Ah yes, sorry for this!" the smaller teen revealed, his chords of steel virtually in effect until he realized people around gave him a stern look. He lowered his tone. "I guess I'll just follow the rest of the trial carefully…"

And he better followed the rest carefully, indeed. He wanted to be a defense attorney, so he took out his smartphone and started recording the whole thing secretly (unlicensed recording was illegal after all). Unfortunately, he forgot to recharge the phone earlier and the battery died out quickly enough.

He thought things couldn't get worse.

Soon, Detective Gumshoe stepped down after his cross-examination by Mr. Wright, and a new witness was going to emerge in the end. The judge ordered a short fifteen minutes recess for Klavier to prepare the witness as well as sending the forensic team to investigate the crime scene further. To the teens' surprise, many of the people in the gallery rushed toward a particular direction: the restrooms.

"Hey, I guess this isn't a bad idea!" Clay yelled, grinning. "I'll go relieve myself too! Be right back!"

The two siblings watched as their friend disappeared among the long lineup with all the other adults. Apollo let out a long breath until Trucy pulled his coat, needing his attention, apparently. "Hey Polly, I'm hungry!" she cried out.

Trying to make himself strict, being her big brother after all, Apollo stood a little straighter than usual, his hands firmly laid on his hips and his gaze staring at her with a stern appearance. "Well, Trucy, you didn't want to eat breakfast today!" the older brother revealed. "You knew the trial will last long!"

The girl crossed her arms in protest. "I knew that! But I had no idea it will be THAT long!" she squealed.

Apollo sighed in defeat since he felt a little hungry himself. He plunged a hand in a pocket and retrieved his small wallet. He looked into it and let a small 10$ bill slide out. Seeing the glee in Trucy's smile as she watched the valuable piece of paper, the brother was unable to hide his compassion toward his little sister.

Maybe that was a little mind manipulation trick from her, but he didn't mind.

Clutching her hand, Apollo led the way to the court hallway, located between the two court lobbies. He was relieved to see a vending machine still over there and that no one was in front of it. This made him glad since he'd be able to get a food fast so they could return to the gallery quickly and not lose their seats.

That was until he saw what the machine was offering.

Suddenly, he almost wanted to cherish his little 10$ bill and keep everything for himself, especially when the cheapest offer had a gruesome cost of 6$. 6$ for a Swiss Roll. Well, two rolls.

But that wasn't all. There was a carton of milk or two hot dogs for 7$, two ham sandwiches for 8$, then some beef jerky or one orange juice for 9$.

However, Trucy's eyes lightened in wonder from the pleasing choices. She started pointing at the hot dogs. "Polly, I want the hot dogs!"

The teen's hands almost trembled when the bill disappeared into the machine and he proceeded to press the button for the hot dogs. They better be delicious with that price, Apollo thought, letting out a growl of disapproval when the machine started to emit few purrs inside. Soon enough, the two hot dogs revealed themselves at the machine bottom. Apollo quickly took over the remaining 3$ that was given back to him and Trucy happily grabbed one of these fast foods.

To her disappointment, evil molds were already devouring the pieces of meats and breads. Upon seeing his little sister's eyebrows furrowed in slight despair, Apollo wanted to yell at the remaining 3$ that was sitting comfortably on his hand as if the small round pieces of metals were laughing at him.

"Hey, you look angry, pals."

Both siblings looked up to the unexpected voice that spoke to them, and suddenly, both of them couldn't avoid the smile on their lips upon seeing the man who stood before them. A tall, scruffy man in a long coat was looking back at them, one eyebrow lifting up in confusion when the teen and the little girl abruptly looked much merrier.

"Gummy-man!" Trucy shouted out while hugging the man who scratched his head in daze.

"Mr. Gumshoe!" Apollo called out, enthusiastically.

Drats, and it was now the bigger boy's turn, the man thought.

"Huh, do I know you from somewhere?" the detective asked in confusion, uncomfortable around the two younger people.

The question nearly made Apollo sulked in dismay, but he realized the man had probably met a lot of other people in his life, and he wouldn't be surprised if the detective forgot about them. Still, he wanted to keep going.

"Maybe you don't remember us," the teen told the older man. "But my sister and I remember you! During the Gramarye case, you took care of us for about a week, and… we never had the opportunity to thank you for being there for us! So, thank you, sir!"

After hearing the comments from the young guy, Detective Gumshoe gasped in surprise. He started smiling as well. "I remember you, pals!" he yelled out to them while proceeding to stroke the hair of both, suddenly making Apollo feel a little small. "Apollo… and Trucy, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes! You remember us!" Trucy yelled along with him happily, still hugging the man.

"I'm glad to see you two kids growing up so well!" Detective Gumshoe added, proud to see the two kids having a happy life despite having lost everything as if they were his own children. "How's the new foster family the police found for you?"

The detective shut his mouth for a moment when he noticed the awkward silence the two kids gave him after asking the question. To make up for this, he decided to go for another question. "So you guys are interested in the law too?"

To his relief, Apollo's smile came back at the new question. "Yeah!" the teen exclaimed, joyful. "I'm studying to be a lawyer, and Prosecutor Gavin is our friend!"

"So you're on the prosecution's side?" the detective asked. "It's good to see more people on our side!"

Another silence. The man felt bad for not being a good talker to kids, or even teenagers. Fortunately for him, the siblings didn't look angry but simply dumbfounded.

"Well, it doesn't matter who wins," Apollo started, looking wise. "As long as people find out the truth! And Mr. Wright looks like a man of truth!"

Detective Gumshoe grinned in awkwardness. He knew the boy's words were right, but for once, he wished to see the prosecutors he worked for win!

The recess was going to end soon, and Detective Gumshoe was still hungry. When he noticed the moldy hot dogs the little girl was sadly holding, he decided to dig his hands into his pocket to surprisingly find an old 5$ bill. "Hey kids," the detective started with a hint of hope in his voice. "What can you get with another 5$?"

Trucy had never been that pleased to see a 5$ bill, and soon, Apollo felt the same way.

"At least I can say those Swiss Rolls are delicious, pals! Let's share it between the three of us!"

* * *

><p>Date: April 19th 2019, 11:37 AM<br>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 7

"Court is now back in session."

Apollo was still carefully following the trial from the gallery, watching as Klavier stated a new fact about the trial. Actually, the forensic team managed to find a bullet in the head of a clown doll, matching the weapon's type that was used to murder the man on the hospital bed. He tried to remember everything since it was out of the way to film the thing when his phone had died. Trucy and Clay were having heavy eyelids and the girl was drifting in her dream world, her head gently resting on her brother's friend chest. Unfortunately for the future lawyer, the only thing he could hear after a while were the snores from both of them. Since when little girls snored?

At one point, the new witness appeared. This was surely getting interesting because new information always come out when new witnesses stood over that bench.

The young teen almost laughed at the speaking magician standing between the two lawyers' benches. The way he acted and spoke was almost poetic to the point that Lavant Maragyre reminded him of his former "uncle", Valant. Even their names felt similar and he was really starting to believe in the so called multiverse theory Clay mentioned earlier. He was pretty sure that somewhere, somehow, Uncle Valant and Uncle Zak would be standing in a kind of trial for a same type of murder.

Of course, he knew in their own universe, that wasn't possible.

He suddenly lost a bit interest in the trial, thinking about his old family, his two uncles, his mother and even his grandfather. There was something so similar to this trial setting with his own family that he was wondering if anyone connected to the trial story were a reincarnation of his lost family.

He missed everyone so much.

Suddenly, few loud bangs from the gavel startled him and everyone else around him. People in the gallery started to gossip a little bit too loudly when the new fact just came out from the trial. Apollo kind of cursed himself for not following the trial since he was not sure what was happening anymore.

"Order! Order! Order!" the judge suddenly shouted, his voice still echoing rather vociferously in the court before he calmed down with the rest of the people "Well, this is all rather sudden…"

"OBJECTION!"

A sarcastic small laugh was heard from the prosecution. It was almost creepy. "Heh heh heh heh… What have I done?" Klavier turned to Mr. Wright with a smirk. "I owe the court an apology. Sorry."

Once again, Apollo didn't really like this side of his prosecutor friend. He knew Klavier was a bit on the scornful side with anyone, but he didn't know he was even more in a real trial.

"S-Sorry for what!?" the defense asked in bewilderment.

Klavier continued coolly as ever. "You see, I was unaware that two of these unique pistols were crafted. The analysis of the rifling marks only proved the type of gun that fired them."

"OBJECTION!"

This time, the protesting objection came from the defense himself. "But… But that's not what you told us before!" Mr. Wright informed. "You said you'd verified the murder weapon!"

In which Klavier replied: "Which is why I'm apologizing to you now. Quite sincerely, I might add… Would you hold me accountable for a mistake made in my youth?"

"That was just this morning!"

"… I am still young."

From the gallery, the brunette teen grumbled at the prosecutor. He definitely didn't like this side of him. Blaming his youth? What a cheap excuse! He once heard about a German prosecutor who started her job at thirteen, and never had she blamed her mistakes to her young age! Was he seeing… a weakness from his friend, a weakness he never saw before?

Maybe Klavier was still a bit tense from the lack of experience. That didn't give him any reason to treat witnesses and defense attorneys in his own, unprofessional way.

Apollo swore he'd never do the same in his first trial. Ever.

Prosecutor Gavin's behavior shocked him to the point he'd rather just watch the rest of the trial and not really follow anything anymore. Nevertheless, there will be more trials in the future, and with any luck, Klavier's performance will mature a bit. Practice makes perfect, as they said.

* * *

><p>Hours had passed, and Apollo had finally succumbed to his drowsiness along with his sister and his friend. Even the loud objection shouts and the banging of the judge's gavel weren't enough to wake him up since they became parts of the surrounding, ambient sounds. Until something suddenly vibrated on his face, abruptly waking him up from his deep slumber. He lifted up his head fast, his eyes still squinting, his mouth fully watering and saliva dripping on the entire right side of his face. He noticed he had fallen asleep on Clay's waist, directly on the pocket where his friend's cellphone was placed. Stupid notifications, he thought. He felt a little bad to see Clay's coat soaked from his own mouth, but he decided to not speak about it to him, seeing the taller teen was still fast asleep.<p>

Apollo's attention returned to the trial that was still on-going, and this time, Klavier just presented a new evidence that seemed like a thick, personal journal that belonged to the victim, a diary of some sort. It was something about the last will of the great, dying magician. The boy wasn't so sure since he was a little lost in the full story. There was a missing page in it, in which the page was torn a bit more carefully than necessary. Somehow, Klavier provoked Mr. Wright into showing a specific evidence to proof that the victim continued his diary.

As expected, Mr. Wright presented his own evidence, which appeared to be exactly the missing page, and there was a perfect fit. The last page described how the first pupil of the dying man couldn't have killed him, and only the second one would have.

"OBJECTION!"

That last objection was much louder and clearer than usual, with another loud fist bang on the wall that accompanied it. This time, it came from Klavier himself. A long silence took place before the prosecutor finally said a word.

There was something fishy about all that.

"…Finally," Klavier simply said. The silence surrounding the courtroom was so quiet even Klavier's soft words were being perfectly heard by everyone in the gallery. "You just couldn't resist, could you, Herr Wright?"

Mr. Wright suddenly tensed at Klavier's statement and wondered if his own evidence was a trap set by someone. After all, he got ahold of the evidence in the last minute by an unknown source. Nevertheless, the man kept his cool, he had a title to protect!

"…Resist what?" the defense attorney started, stunned by the provocation begun by the young prosecutor. "Presenting solid evidence?"

Klavier ignored the defense comment and turned to the judge, nearly begging for his plea. "…Herr Judge?"

There was no need to have an extra sixth sense to see the surprise in the judge's eyes for this sudden change of mood in the trial. "Y-Yes, Prosecutor Gavin?" the judge asked, stunned.

"Might I request we put the current cross-examination on hold?" Klavier requested, seemingly sure of what he had to do. "The prosecution would like to call a new witness."

The judge wanted to protest, almost wishing that Mr. Wright's evidence was too solid to be truth, and, oddly, the defense didn't seem to flinch at the prosecution's reaction. However, the older lawyer's expression remained dull, as if he was afraid of what may come.

"B-But, Prosecutor Gavin!" the old judge objected. "This evidence overturns the current witness's…"

But Klavier interrupted him. "…I ask only to put it on hold! Please. My new witness has a very, very important piece of testimony to give."

"…Five minutes. No more. I promise… Your Honor."

From the gallery, Apollo couldn't help but intensely gaze at his prosecutor friend. There was really something off about Klavier today, and he tried to pick up something with his sixth sense. Nothing came out, and this annoyed him to no end. He thought that might be because it was Klavier's very first trial that everything took a turn to the weirder, but… this couldn't be. Klavier was not the begging type of individual, and there he was, appearing to beg for a win, or something. The boy could not tell.

The judge turned to the defense and, strangely, he agreed to the prosecution's request, because sooner or later, the witness will show up to, maybe overturning everything that had been discussed so far.

Then Apollo felt it, the tension from his bracelet tightening against his wrist while he brought his attention back to the defense attorney, the one who inspired him to become one himself.

Phoenix Wright might be hiding something.

Soon enough, after few words exchanges between the men of law, a request was made for everyone in the court, save for the defense, prosecutor, the judge and the new witness, to step down from their seats and exit the courtroom. There was a small uproar and protest from the audience, but the bailiffs managed to calm them down. One came toward Apollo and ordered him to wake his friend and his sister up to which the boy complied with a grumpy expression. He wanted to see the rest of Klavier's performance and he wanted to know the truth!

Later, the bailiffs let everyone know about the judiciary deal made to the witness so their identity remained a secret to the greater public.

When everyone from the gallery were shoved out from the courtroom, confusion could be read on everyone's face. Everyone was interested on who exactly was the witness and the reason they were thrown out by the court. Trucy looked up to her older brother, yawning then scrubbing her sleepy eyes, firmly holding his hands. Clay mumbled few incoherent words before he finally spoke clearer sentences. "Hey!" the black haired teen exclaimed to his brunette friend. "What happened? Why did the security guys kick us out like that? The trial didn't seem to have ended yet!"

Apollo crossed his arms, his brows furrowed into annoyance. "I don't know!" the smaller teen replied. "But, I felt something off from Klavier and that Mr. Wright, and we need to find out! I mean, everyone deserves to know the truth!"

"Yeah, but the justice system isn't so just, you know…" Clay commented, almost sadly. "Maybe you can ask Klavier after the trial."

The brunette let a small chuckle escape on these simplistic words from his friend. "I wish it was that easy, Clay. But, it's as you say, the justice system isn't simple, and if that "judiciary deal" was made between the new witness and the court, then Klavier is not supposed to speak about it to the mass, and that includes his own friends and family."

"That's too bad!" Clay blurted out, disappointed.

And too bad, indeed. Later that day, Apollo tried asking Klavier what exactly happened during the trial at the end, but he refused to speak about it. It was against his own deal. The frustration went even worse when Klavier still refused to tell him if he even won or lost the trial.

It was only later that night, on the news, that he learned about Mr. Wright's penalty and probable disbarment from the defense legislation for presenting illegal evidence. Since the defendant actually disappeared without a trace, there was no "win" or even "lost" for the verdict. Klavier, nor Mr. Wright, had won the trial. And Klavier didn't mind.

"At least we know the truth." Mr. Gavin, the mentor, of course, told his protégé, and this time, even his angelic voice was unable to sooth his mind. "Mr. Wright was nothing more than a forger. Maybe that's what it takes for a famous defense attorney to build up fame? Who knows?"

Apollo went silent on these words. He did not believe it. He could see the remaining passion shining in the defense's eyes in that trial, and there was a truth out there that needed to be known. Commoners like him had the right to know everything. Seeing the worry hunting in his pupil, Mr. Gavin spurted out a soft giggle.

"Justice, don't worry about it," the older man declared. "There is corruption everywhere in this world, even from the most saint of the saints, it can't be helped."

"Everyone has a darkness in their heart, from the most innocent children to the most angelic, loving mothers."

"However, I believe you'll be the least corrupted of them all. You'll be a great defense attorney."

"And, who knows, maybe you'll even go against my dearest brother, one day."


	8. A Research for Darkness

_Upon realizing that I couldn't use the Gramaryes for the trial on the previous chapter, I had to use other magicians, but it's basically the same trial, lol._

_Also, it appears to be canon that the Gavins aren't German according to an employee of Capcom. There's also a spoiler for AAI2 at the end, but nothing too revealing since it's an obvious spoiler._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 7: A Research for Darkness**

Date: September 25th 2020, 7:51 PM  
>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room<p>

"Ever since you got these two kids under your wings, it's a rare sight to see you alone in your residence, Kristoph brüder. Where did they go?"

"Klavier, stop randomly spurting German words. You're not even German. Because of you, Apollo and Trucy think I'm from Germany and now Trucy is trying to learn the language."

Klavier chuckled. "Ja, it can't be helped, thanks to my old pals from Germany!"

"Heh heh, you never change, brother. And to answer your question, Trucy has gone performing to the Wonder Bar, with Justice and Terran watching over her. You never know when those creatures of the night might come out on her way back home."

"That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you. Is Herr Terran a good hunter?"

Indeed, Clay was the newest addition to the hunting firm, insisting on learning the way of the job with his best friend.

"Terran's not a bad hunter, but he's definitely calmer than his friend. Of course, Justice will always have the upper hand with his so called 'sixth sense'."

Ever since the younger Gavin brother became a famed prosecutor and the lead of his own famous music band, Kristoph rarely got a visit from him, and somehow, he missed his presence. Having his own successful band had to put his hunting job on hold and his hunting skills had been rusted ever since.

"Speaking of Herr Justice," Klavier asked. "How far is he in his law studies?"

A silence only came as Kristoph held his pair of glass and took a little bit of time to clean them. The older brother finally spoke. "Justice isn't skilled with the law as you. He's still learning and he does his best. However, since your first trial last year, he had been slowing down. He might not be accomplished enough to go to the famed Themis Legal Academy, but I see no problem if he wishes for the Ivy university."

Klavier let out a relieving sigh. "That's good to hear," the younger one murmured, smiling at the good news. "That reminds me," he suddenly went a little more enthusiastically. "Since you are a hunter, a co-worker of mine at the prosecutor office got an interesting gossip for you and many hunters."

This suddenly peaked Kristoph's interest. Anything concerning his own job, especially if it was lucrative news, was always good news. "Let's hear it!" the hunter exclaimed.

"Herr Blackquill has always been a good prosecutor with psychology on his side, and he's also studying under a famed psychologist from the Space Center."

Upon mentioning the Space center, a small grin appeared on Kristoph's lips. This was a place Clay often visited with his protégé, and whenever they came back from the center, Apollo would be speaking of space for what seemed like forever. Maybe Apollo should go for a space scientist career in his later life instead.

Klavier continued. "Apparently, his mentor is also known, between her little group of scientists, as an expert in the psychology of both humans and vampires."

For some reason, there was a sudden cold chill on Kristoph's entire being upon hearing the word "vampire", and even Klavier noticed the tension from his older. "Is something the matter, brüder?"

Once again, the older man quickly grabbed his glasses to wipe the tiny fragment of filth that might have gotten on them. "No, continue," the man simply answered, still staring at his glasses, now with his usual, angelic calm.

"All right," Klavier hesitantly responded, but his tone went higher and a little more jovial. "The psychologist is also a skillful pharmacologist and she managed to create a medication that could revolutionize this world!"

"A medication to calm down vampires!"

And yet again, this gave another jolt of chill to Kristoph who appeared stunned by the revelation. "Enlighten me about it, Klavier," the older man bluntly spitted out.

"Well, as a hunter, you probably know about vampires, that they attack on humans to feed on their blood. You know, they only seem to attack us to feed, but they can remain tame if they are not hungry according to Herr Blackquill's mentor."

Klavier wanted to see his older brother's reaction to the news, but the other one did not appear too pleased. "I… know that." Kristoph revealed.

"The pharmacologist's medication will actually suppress the instinctive behavior of a vampire by reducing their sense of smell and taste by almost 100%, giving them all the nutrients needed for them to survive. The medication will also allow them to wander on day time, though at a much lower freedom than normal humans since the sun light can still burn their skin, but with a simple sunscreen, this can be remedied."

"Because the vampires cannot feel the hunger and they get everything they need from their medication, they could hypothetically live among humans like normal people!"

"If we give those medications to vampires around the world, we won't need to hunt for them anymore, and the world will be a much safer place for humanity!"

"Wouldn't that be awesome, ja?"

When his brother finished his comments, Kristoph was unable to think logically. So many information in so little time. Yet, the only thing that came to his mind was that… if the gossip that ran along his brother and his prosecutor friend was to come true in their world, his hunting firm and his livelihood will be lost.

Forever.

"Y-Yes, this is quite the good news," Kristoph could only mutter.

"Indeed," Klavier went along with him. "Though, I don't think this can happen any time soon, since vampires are still a controversy in this world, but, who knows? Your hunting firm's still safe, at least!"

Or maybe not.

At least from Kristoph's point of view.

* * *

><p>Date: October 3st 2020, 1:36 PM<br>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Robotic Laboratory

"How do you feel, Aura?" Athena gently asked her "aunt" when she sat beside her, her short legs unable to touch the ground, waving back and forth aimlessly in the air.

"Ready to take over the world, little girl!" the purple haired woman grinned at the small girl, her fist pumping enthusiastically up toward the ceiling. "Your mother's medic does a good thing on me!"

The young girl laughed at her aunt cheerfulness. "Even if I don't hear your heart, I can feel your happiness!" Athena revealed with a smile. "I've never been so glad that you are my mom's partner!"

"Partner, indeed, but also her test subject," Aura added, a bit on the teasing side. "And I've never been so glad for it either."

It had been about a year and half since the biting accident, but that unfortunate event had not been vain for Metis. Thanks to it, she was able to use her own friend as a part of her experiments for her medication researches. Aura was glad to make use of her curse for Metis to create a better place to live for both humans and vampires, and she truly hoped that one day, she will be able to reveal herself to the world as one of "them". When people put more thought into it, they should at least realize that all vampires were once humans on their previous lives.

The luck had always been on Aura's side when she was wondering what her new life would be like if she had never met Metis before. Would she leave the space center every nights to hunt for wild animals to keep her humanity and sanity intact, or would she have succumbed to the predatory instincts and hunt for something humanly? Either way, there was no way she'd choose one of these. Metis's researches were simply her lifesaver.

Those medications became a gossip subject among the Space center employees, and many of them seemed to approve the research. After all, it was not too uncommon to see people among the mass who knew loved ones who felt in the hell of the night life and wished to see them back in a normal existence.

Aura looked up to the window. It was a cloudy day so the sun didn't bother her. Athena stood beside her and started humming heartily. The older woman smiled at her.

"Athena," Aura called. Her voice was sad but composed. "Tell me the truth. Does Simon know about my… current state?"

To answer her question, Athena simply nodded, keeping up with her silly hum, and this time, she waved her body left and right to go along with her little song. "Nope, never told him anything." Upon finishing her reply, the girl stopped her little act and returned her stare to the woman. Her eyes shined in pity. "Why are you afraid your brother knows about it?"

"He's a hunter, a vampire hunter," Aura bluntly replied.

The small girl protested with a hint of compassion. "But he's your little brother!" Athena silently shouted out. "He wouldn't hurt his sister! I mean, if I had a sibling, I'd never hurt him or her! And Simon only hurt bad vampires, so he can't hurt you!"

A gloomy laugh escaped the woman's lips, followed by a long sigh. "Athena, if only life was that simple, I'd told him since the beginning."

* * *

><p>Humbly standing on his so called "galactic" Segway, the Director of the space center, the "great" Yuri Cosmos, carefully listened, in private at her request, to Metis's fruitful researches on the psychology of vampires and her researches for medications to tame them. They came in few types, depending on their level of fierceness. To Metis's satisfaction, the director appeared to be pleased with her researches and the man was ready to speak to the government about this project. However, there will be a need of test subjects, and to do so, they'd need to capture few of "them".<p>

"Director," Metis proudly began. "I need to tell you this before we can proceed to find test subjects, but there's already one among the space center employees."

"W-What?" Director Cosmos exclaimed, firmly holding his cap which was falling by his sudden surprised jump. "I-Impossible! A vampire among my men? How is that even possible? Dare to tell me if all of this is true? I need to meet this mystery vampire living among us at once!"

"I would like to introduce you to them, but you know them already. However, I made a plea to make sure to not reveal their identity to anyone until the project is publically known."

"W-Well, is that so? Let it be, then! But unfortunately, we still need more conclusive results before I can even speak of it to the higher ups! Should you get help from, let's say, few skilled hunters, then we shall look forward it!"

Metis was grateful to see Director Cosmos on her side, but she really hoped it was possible for her to reveal the identity of the said vampire now. However, her more humane side demanded to keep her mouth shut about it.

She told herself to let Simon know of her eventual request for some vampire hunting. He'd need to keep them alive for her experiments.

* * *

><p>Date: October 5th 2020, 7:15 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Dining Room

"Huh, what?"

The sudden question Apollo asked, his mouth still full of his takeout food while eyeing his mentor, left a modest giggle emerge from Mr. Gavin. Trucy felt like laughing silently at the scene.

"That's right," the older man declared. "I'm taking a one week vacation."

The teenager still couldn't mutter a single word, though there were many questions to ask about his mentor's sudden decision to take a vacation out of the blue. And during the month of October? There weren't even any holidays on that month, save for Halloween, but that didn't really count.

Trucy wanted to interfere. "Mr. Gavin!" she called with an expression filled with disappointment. "I wanna go on vacation too!"

The little girl's statement prompted another laugh from the blond man before he softly patted on her hair. "That's unfortunate, little Trucy. This is going to be a personal journey of mine. I'm going to meet a woman, and I want this little time between her and I together, alone."

Apollo couldn't help himself and he started laughing at the man. Now that he thought about it, Mr. Gavin was definitely not the ugly type of man, not to mention his charming ways of speaking, almost poetically. Even his soothing demeanor with strangers and acquaintance alike attracted many. How the man was still single remained a mystery, until now, that's it. At first, he thought he might have been a true asexual, being attracted to no one, so this sudden "vacation" proved him the opposite of what he thought. Well, not quite the "opposite", but certainly something unexpected to him.

"Soooo… Who's the lucky girl?" the teen questioned in a very uncivil manner.

"That's none of your concern, Justice." The reply was blunt but effective since the two siblings nearly fell down from their chair from the shocked, strict reply. Mr. Gavin took notice of the siblings' discomfort, so he let out his usual heartening smile to appease them down. "Someone spoke of her to me, and that's why I need to meet her, simple as that. If this works out, then maybe you'll see this 'lucky girl'."

The boy went thoughtful about it. Never had Mr. Gavin taken a vacation, and the whole situation appeared too fishy to him.

But once again, he couldn't find any tell, nor his bracelet reacted.

Sometimes, he wondered if he relied too much on the additional sense given by his mother.

"How long are you going, Mr. Gavin?" Apollo asked, curiously.

"A whole week," the man answered, still smiling. "I know this is a sudden decision, but I believe in your skills as a big, protective brother for Trucy while I'm gone. I must also request you to keep an eye on Vongole. She's still young for her canine years, and it will sadden me if no proper care is taken for her."

The young teen returned to his mentor curled up lips with his answer. "Hey, no problem, sir! I'd do all these things even if you haven't told me already!"

"That's good to hear!" Mr. Gavin exclaimed with a higher enthusiasm, a rare sight. As he turned and walked away to the entrance door, he waved a hand to the siblings. "Justice, Trucy, I bid you farewell for now. See you in a week."

Soon after the door shut itself with a clicking sound, the two siblings emptily stared at the door, remaining silent for a good dozen of seconds. "Polly! Do you think we'll see a new girl here?" Trucy finally broke the silence with her little question.

"I don't know, Truce," Apollo answered, not so hungry anymore. "Mr. Gavin's always mysterious in these times."

"Oh, but you know what?" the girl suggested with a slight sum of hope. "I think a new girl here will be fun! I'm always the only girl! I mean, Clay and Klavier are fun, but Klavier never comes anymore since he's a prosecutor, and Clay, well, he's a guy!"

"Heh, don't forget Vongole!" the teen teased.

"I know, I know! But I can't speak and understand doggy, Mr. Obvious!"

* * *

><p>Date: October 7th 2020, 1:56 PM<br>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Personal Cykes Lounge

As generic as it looked, Athena never realized how drawing was a relief for her lonely soul. Whenever she felt depressed or just sad for no apparent reason, Simon told her to draw anything that came to her mind, and there she was, holding another "beautiful" masterpiece she just did in her small lounge! And of course, she needed to show this to her mother! She would always compliment on her artistic works, but she didn't really appreciate when she started on-going with her psychologist analyst on her drawings.

But it didn't really matter; at least she got to interact with her.

Today she just finished a drawing of her mother, Aura, Ponco and Clonco, the latest one being the new addition in her little family and the little brother of Ponco. She wanted to add Simon and herself on the paper, but she miscalculated the space on the page and thus there were no remaining place to add more people. This saddened her, but she did her everything to make it the best looking piece of work she ever did. She thought to herself that maybe she could become an artist as she grew up!

But somehow, from her room, she heard a piercing cry, a frightened scream. This prompted her heartbeat to fasten, and she suddenly became scared. However, she gathered all of her courage to face what may come, and she opened the sliding door to the Robotic lab.

To her astonishment, she could see two people: one on the ground, and one who stood up, seemingly looking at the fallen one. The rested one had their face covered. The one above was a masked man and she could see his long blond hair behind his mask.

There was no heartbeat from the two people.

The one on the ground was… her own mother. A cover of blood soaked her clothes over her entire chest, and the smell of the red substance emanated in the whole room. The intense aroma of the blood seemed to have brought a heavy pant from the man who stood in front of her, his hand firmly holding a filthy katana and with another hand trying to cover his nose….

…to his failure since he was wearing a ghostly, creepy mask. Obviously, he was trying to not succumb to his hunger.

Athena couldn't move. The only movements she was able to make out were opening her hands, dropping her now forgotten masterpiece which directly landed on the pool of red substance beside her limp mother. Her body shook in fear; her trembling lips were trying to shout something, but no words came out. She couldn't control herself and the only thoughts that invaded her confused mind was that the man with no pulse hurt her mother, and he needed to pay.

In the jolt of the moment, she snagged a knife from her mother's tool box and she let her hands, confidently holding the weapon, control themselves to make a dive toward the masked man. The mysterious one ducked her slash, but Athena refused to give up. She couldn't stop here, she had to fight the man and not be afraid. She went for another try.

And this time, her weapon reached the man's right hand.

A loud scream with a mix of terrifying roars escaped the man's mouth as blood flowed like a drain, and in a frightening, bestial fury, he violently shoved the little girl to hit the table, to which Athena lost her consciousness.

Upon realizing what had just happened, now safe from being seen, the man tossed the weapon aside. He quickly gripped some clothes to cover his bleeding hand and he let out a relieving sigh. When the bleeding had slowed down, his mind finally quieted down to search what he was looking for.

Dr. Cykes's notebook stood on one of the tables, the one with the title of "A Medication to Help Vampires".

Underneath his mask, a satisfying grin appeared on his face.

* * *

><p>She couldn't have dozed off for a long time, hadn't she? She slowly rubbed her eyes, and to her shock, she could smell a small fire somewhere. A fire? Impossible! Why didn't the extinguisher system ever activate?<p>

Then it suddenly hit her that her aunt Aura had deactivated the system for their lab solely since they used fire a lot. Was her mother experimenting on something?

Wait. Her mother.

She raised herself to her knees. Her own clothes were soiled with blood, and her mother was sleeping beside her. Except, once again, there was no heartbeat.

"… Mom?" Athena muttered, sorrowfully. "Is something wrong?"

But the woman would not answer.

"Are… you sick?" the girl asked, now worried. "Do… you need some repair?"

Then she remembered the machine Aura made to easily repair her friends, Ponco and Clonco, and another idea hit her. If her mother was sick and hurt, then there was probably the best way to repair her mother!

Upon seeing the sad little girl, someone spoke to her.

"Athena!" a happy, childish, robotic voice called her out behind her. "Do you need help?"

Athena turned to her and found her little friend, Ponco. The girl had never been so glad to find her small, metallic friend around here. "Ponco!" Athena called, relieved. "I need your help, I can't raise Mom… Can you help me?"

The little robot lifted up her hands in the air with joy, glad to be able to help her human friend. "Yay! I'll be helpful! But where is your Mommy Metis?"

From the silly question, Athena raised an eyebrow. "What?" Athena retorted sadly. "But she's just over there, beside me…"

"Oh!" Ponco exclaimed when her "eyes" were glancing at the motionless, bloodied body on the ground. She then proceeded to raise the dead body in her arms. "Where do you need me to put it?"

"Let's put her on the operating table, so we can repair her!"

* * *

><p>Dr. Cykes's request was nothing but sudden to Simon, but he was glad there were no cases assigned to him today. Any request from his mentor was a good one, and he hoped the one she'll ask him will be a challenging one. She never told him any details, and this got him quite curious about it.<p>

On his way to the lab, he could have sworn the scent of fire smoke was getting stronger. He knew his sister conducted few explosive experiments sometimes, but to smell it from that far, especially between these hermetic doors and these soundproof walls, he wondered if the smell came from somewhere else.

But when he reached the front door of the robotic lab, the smell of fire had gotten much, much stronger, though he couldn't feel any heat emanating from the place. Maybe the fire had been extinguished already. He used his own card to open the locked door.

And he wished he had never opened it.

The gruesome spectacle that awaited him was worse than his most frightening nightmare. His stare was stuck on the so called "operation table", where… his own inert mentor, was laid down in the middle of it all, the blood covering her chest, and the robotic arms were ready to reach the bloodied body.

Beside her stood the little girl, Athena Cykes, her clothes soaked with dark red, her pitied eyes watching her mother as the machines were trying to "repair" her. Upon noticing her friend in the room, she smiled and told him in such sweet, innocent voice those fearsome words which rendered Simon frozen with terror.

"Something's wrong with Mommy, so I'm taking her apart to fix her…"

* * *

><p>Date: October 7th 2020, 9:31 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room

Being alone at home without the presence of an older adult in the middle of the week encouraged Apollo to get himself to have a late sleepover, even if tomorrow morning was a school day. He thought to himself he will be able to deal with this since he's pretty much an adult now, though still not "legal" by the law, but old enough to make brighter decisions. And today, he told himself he'd enjoy a feast of potato chips while watching boring shows on the TV, because there was never anything interesting on a Wednesday night.

Well, if there was nothing to watch, maybe he better watched the news. He never knew what kind of new stories could pop out from which he could gossip about at school.

Just when he changed the channel, he heard few soft steps behind the sofa. He turned to the sound to see Trucy half-asleep still in her pajamas, and the girl appeared quite grumpy.

"Polly…" she angrily whispered to her brother. "When you eat your chips, it keeps me awake."

That was it? And there he thought she'd complained about the louder TV sounds because no one ever watch TV at this time in the middle of the week under Mr. Gavin's roof. She had to complain about the noise made when he devoured the fried, round and thin potatoes. Since when did his little sister have a very awesome hearing sense?

Grumbling about his sister's statement, he tossed the bowl of chips aside. "Heh, all right, Truce, just for you, I'll stop eating," Apollo grumpily responded.

In the end, Trucy plunged into a sadder emotion for no apparent reason. "Can I watch TV with you?" the girl suddenly asked, reaching for her brother's hands and almost hugging them to pull him closer.

Surprised, Apollo slightly retreated his head behind with disbelief. "Huh, why?" the teen asked in dismay. He childishly wanted to be alone for once.

"I… also had a nightmare before you ate your chips…" Trucy revealed with a low, sad tone. "I dreamed that Mr. Gavin and Clay were vampires and they tried to eat me. You tried to protect me, but they bit you and then… then… they made you a vampire too! And then you wanted me to be a vampire too!"

He didn't know how to answer his little sister. Encouragement words might be needed in such case, but he wasn't so sure. It was not like he had been changed into a vampire, or his friends were being ones either.

Although the revelation of her dream prompted him to rethink about the dangers of working at night against those creatures, he wanted to reassure her that this will never happen, or at least he hoped so. Trying to copy his mentor's angelic smile, he gave her a soft pat on the head.

"Hey, Truce," he started, trying to sound gentle as he could. "Clay won't be a vampire, Mr. Gavin won't be a vampire, and I won't be a vampire! And I can assure you, and I promise, that I'll never let you become a vampire."

Apollo was glad his words successfully soothed little Trucy, and she pulled his hand closer to her crying eyes. "You… promise?" the girl childishly asked, her piercing eyes staring straight into his.

"I promise," the teen repeated.

Her mood suddenly shifted to a much happier state of mind. "Yay!" she exclaimed, releasing his hand and sitting beside her older brother on the couch. "So let's watch TV together!"

"W-What?" was the only thing Apollo could mutter when his sister got even closer to him. He pondered if the nightmare part of her little story was just made up so she could sit beside him. "Wait!" he continued, shocked by her little behavior. "I never said you could watch TV with me! You've got school tomorrow, so you should be asleep already!"

The little girl protested along with him. "But you have school tomorrow too, Polly! Don't play dumb games with me!"

A sigh of exasperation came out from Apollo's tired mouth because he knew Trucy was right. How could a sixteen years old young man lose against a nine years old girl? "All right then," the teen admitted defeat. "But only for tonight, okay?"

A joy hit the girl when she readied herself to have a late sleepover and watch TV with her brother, until she noticed it was the news channel. Suddenly, her enthusiasm died out quickly like the wind. She noticed Apollo hid the remote, preventing her from changing the channel.

Why, oh why did grownups love the news so much, she thought to herself.

Nothing came out of the ordinary, as usual. The anchorman blurted out more boring words from his mouth, speaking of news about financial statistics, more and more generic fraud criminals and stuff like that. Soon enough, there were some advertisements that last for about five minutes. She wondered why the advertisements kept getting longer and longer as the years went by.

Then a news came out, one that would peak Apollo and Trucy's interest.

A murder at the Space Center.

"Polly, isn't this the space center you often go with Clay?" Trucy asked, pointing at the center picture that appeared on the TV screen.

"Hey, you're right!" Apollo exclaimed. "I wonder what happened there."

Apparently, Dr. Metis Cykes, a renowned psychologist and pharmacologist of the Space Center, had been murdered. A young man had been apprehended; the famous prosecutor Simon Blackquill who had been studying psychology under the victim. No words on the motive for the murder, but rumors told the mass that the prosecutor's motive might be related to Metis's research on the psychology of vampires which was found burning in the trash can. Only the cover of the notebook remained readable.

It was also mentioned that Mrs. Cykes's daughter and her coworker, Mr. Blackquill's sister, had been claiming his innocence and a trial will be conducted to determine his guilt or innocence. Yet, the man still maintained his guilt, claiming that he had enjoyed the murder of his mentor at his hands.

From past trials he had observed, Apollo knew when accused people claimed their guilt, it didn't always mean a true guilt. Seeing two close people to the prosecutor, including the own daughter of the victim, claiming his innocence, there was a chance they might have been telling the truth.

Confused about the event, the teen passed a hand through his hair, leaving out a sigh. How was it possible to see two men of law being convicted of corruption and murder within a year? Well, a little more than a year, but still… He heard about another prosecutor few years ago who had lost his badge and his freedom when he was convicted for the murder of a defense attorney. There was also a story of the chief of the district police who killed a prosecutor for his own plan. Words were also told about stories of corruption among higher ups between an important man in the Prosecutorial Investigation Committee and two more central individuals.

He remembered Mr. Gavin's words last year, just after Klavier's first trial; that corruption was everywhere among men and women. He didn't expect corruption to be everywhere among virtually everyone in the law!

This fact alone saddened him a little since he wished to be part of the law too.

He really hoped he could work this out when he'll be a defense attorney! If only this will allow him to find the truth for people like Mr. Wright and Mr. Blackquill…


	9. Deeper in the Darkness

_As always, this chapter is supposed to be part of the previous chapter… I'm also not sure to understand the school grade system for high schools in the US or Japan. Let's say Japanifornia's system is the same as where I'm from, where people normally graduate from high school on their 17__th__ year of life (or 16 or 18 depending if they were born close to the first school date or not)._

_Also thanks Shimmering-Sky for the review, fav and following! If you spot any English mistake, don't be shy to mention them! :)_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 8: Deeper in the Darkness**

Date: October 11th 2020, 8:06 PM  
>Place: Gavin's Condo, Siblings' Bedroom<p>

Because he had an exam tomorrow morning, Apollo did everything to sleep earlier than usual. He was so much grateful that Trucy was already fast asleep on her bed since he still shared the room with her. That way, he wouldn't be bothered by her in his attempt to drift away in the dream world. He better be in top shape for his important exam since he used up all the weekend to study, for once.

However, he never thought that a tiny click from the entrance door could be so loud in a silent time like tonight. While this left him a grumpy expression on his face, he knew exactly who was coming, so he decided to get up slowly and quietly as possible (so he didn't wake his sister up) to welcome the man who had just arrived in the residence.

"Mr. Gavin!" Apollo called, closing the door behind him, his voice loud enough to be heard but quiet enough to leave his sleeping sister in her current state.

"Well, well, if this isn't Justice!" Mr. Gavin retorted back, glad to be back home. "Already in your pajamas? How unusual from you!"

The teen stretched his arms high with a yawn before he answered. "Well, there's a huge exam tomorrow, so I planned to sleep a little earlier."

"Then why aren't you sleeping yet?"

"The click when you put the key in the lock woke me up."

"Oh…"

An awkward silence took place, leaving both men staring at the floor with a stroppy gulp, until Apollo broke the peace.

"Hey sir, might as well stay up a little later so you can tell me about your vacation!"

The sudden demand appeared to be so enthusiast that Mr. Gavin was unable to refuse speaking about it, but he'd rather remain secretive about his personal life. After all, no one ever needed to know about it. When both men were comfortably sitting on the couch, the first thing that stood out from Mr. Gavin was the unusual bandage he was wearing on his right hand. Apollo was clever enough to know these white stripes weren't a fashion thing. If anything he had learned ever since he lived in this condo, beginning five long years ago, it was that Mr. Gavin was a really fashioned man who took very much care of his appearance. He put so much attention into it that he went so far as using polish nails. Polish nails, for god's sake! Even his fashioned little fop brother never used polish nail.

"What happened to your hand?" Apollo questioned, pointing at his bandaged hand.

"Oh, this was a mere injury when meeting the girl," Mr. Gavin calmly replied.

"That must have been a pretty bad injury to have that much bandage!"

There was another silence, and the teen guessed the man simply didn't want to speak about it. Was that an accident? Or maybe the girl he met was a crazy, murderous one? He'll probably never know… unless he asked. "How was the girl anyway? Did it work out?"

Apollo swore he heard a dry chuckle escape the man's lips.

"No," was the only answer he got, and the teen nodded in defeat.

"Man, that's boring!" the young man exclaimed, moving his bended fingers through his hair with a long breath. "Girls can be tough! That reminds me of that girl who had a crush on Clay at school, and then-"

"Justice," Mr. Gavin bluntly interrupted. The man was greeted by quietness from the boy who glanced straight in his eyes, his piercing maroon pupils shining with curiosity of what comment may come from his mentor. "What's the subject of your exam tomorrow?"

The boy sighed in disappointment. He was expecting more stories from Mr. Gavin, but decidedly, he really, really didn't want to speak more of it. "Literature," Apollo replied, biting his lips at the answer. "Not my favorite subject, to tell the truth. I had to read a novel, but I really didn't like it."

"Then, for your sanity tomorrow morning, you should go sleep now."

Upon getting the comment that sounded like an order, Apollo embarrassingly grinned at his mentor and went back to his room, leaving him a quiet "Good night, Mr. Gavin," for him to enjoy, maybe.

Mr. Gavin smiled when his protégé disappeared behind the door. Such an obedient kid even at the pinnacle of the rebellion age, he thought, never questioning of his mentor's actions or past, with his little sister following his path.

How well did he choose his own disciples!

* * *

><p>Date: October 23th 2020, 12:39 AM<br>Place: Cosmos Space Center, Robotic Laboratory

It had been more than two weeks since Metis's murder, and time had never been so dark in the center. The air felt so heavy, the ambiance so hot, and the dark night appeared like hell. She couldn't bear to watch the robot companion that accompanied her in her complete madness as she was starting to pant like an animal, her teeth gritting in terror at the fear of falling into utter insanity. A faint growl escaped her chords when she grabbed the sides of her head with her sturdy hands, nearly wanting to perforate her skull, thinking life wasn't worth living anymore, especially not for an eternity.

In spite of the instincts she was trying to control the best she could, Aura finally took ahold of her cherished treasure: a small picture of her late co-worker Metis… No, lover, even as a one-sided love… Taken by the sudden, strong humane emotions when staring at the picture, she pulled the frame closer to her heart. While the act appeased her mind a little, she almost wanted to violently clench at the frame to throw it away to the nearest person when she realized the pulses of her heart were no more.

Aura did everything to keep her instincts under control ever since the death of her love. She felt so disgusted, having to force herself to run out every nights to hunt for food in the nearby woods, usually some small mammals and sometimes birds. To satisfy her hunger, she had no choice. Yet, the surprise overtook her when she realized the blood of the animals wasn't so bad. A part of her wondered what human blood actually tasted like, but…

No! There was no way she'd think like that! She had to keep going with the animals, or else, she'll lose her humanity forever! After all, hunting for animal wasn't too bothersome. In her old human life, like virtually everyone else, she ate the meat of animals, and no way this was seen as a controversy. That meant there was no way drinking the blood of animals could be seen as a controversy either, right?

If only Metis was still alive… Or if only her researches were still intact somewhere, but no, the murderer had to burn her complete research and steal the medications she made.

The murderer… That princess…

Her brother was covering for her sake, and she knew it.

Where was the princess anyway? Where had she gone? She completely disappeared after her dear little brother's trial, which ended in a guilty verdict. His execution had been scheduled on December 2027. Way to ruin someone's future Christmas holidays.

"Mama Aura! What's the matter?"

Aura turned to the voice whom she knew came from her little mechanic friend, Clonco. A sad emote was shown on "his" face, and to her horror, Aura knew that the "fake" robotic sadness was only a part of Metis's own genius, as if... as if… Clonco was Metis's own child. The only answer the robot companion could get was another faint, beastly snarl from the woman.

"Get… away from me, Hunk of junk…" the woman muttered. "Stop calling me Mama… Your two Mamas… died…"

How the robot could detect her while having no heartbeat was a mystery to her.

* * *

><p>Date: June 24th 2021, 9:43 PM<br>Place: Borscht Bowl Club, Dining Room

The scent of cold air and sweet, cheap liquor in the grand place froze his nostrils, which prompted him to tense with goosebumps all around himself. A faint stench of smoke filled the surrounding, and he was grateful ever since smoking had been abolished inside all public places in the country. Else, he thought he could have died from the awful odor if people were to some inside. Not that he could actually die from it, ever.

There was the man he wished to meet among all other low and pitiful drunk beings with their regressed minds, laughing and boasting about their lives and their success to their equally mindless friends. When his eyes turned to the special piano placed in the dining room, he finally found the man he was searching for, sitting in front of the majestic, wide instrument. Of course, the man was not playing it as requested by the customers. He laughed at the thought of hearing him play.

"Ah, Wright! Always a pleasure to meet you!" the man greeted the player who seemingly enjoy the company of the customers sitting close to him.

One of the customers protested at the name given to the "pianist". "Heh! That's Phoenix for you!" the customer shouted out.

However, the pianist, Phoenix Wright, ignored the customer's words and called his friend with a friendly hand. "Kristoph! It's good to see you in this… pathetic place. Not that kind of place where we'd see a humble man of your caliber wandering around. What's the reason for your visit today?"

Ever since that trial on the fateful day of April 19th 2019, Phoenix Wright and Kristoph Gavin had become good friends. The main reason for this friendship was due to Klavier's actions that led to the fall of the defense attorney's badge and grandiose reputation since the man felt a little bad for what his little brother did. Whenever both of them visited each other, they'd speak of their usual lives and their ways of hunting. Kristoph was surprised how Phoenix was actually an excellent hunter. At least, the ex-attorney felt grateful for keeping his hunting firm and license.

However, surprisingly, his best income came from his talent of Poker player which was his "secret" job in this old club. He was deemed the best player in the underground city, and anyone who'd get to defeat the "undefeatable" will win the jackpot. However, he had gone undefeated for so long people forgot when his first and only lost was.

Upon learning of Phoenix's true job in the club, Kristoph sometimes wondered if his two disciples' talent could come in handy to the ex-attorney. If they were to help him in his games, he'd probably go undefeated forever. While Apollo was much better than Trucy at finding the subtle, tensed tics from people, the boy had a much harder time hiding his own tension than his little sister. This made the girl the hypothetical, ideal partner for Phoenix.

And Phoenix looked like a Poker face expert.

"You don't always think I need a reason to visit a friend?" Kristoph answered his friend with his usual friendly smile.

Phoenix let out a little chuckle. "All right, come and sit, the grape juice's on me," the raven-haired man offered.

When they sat down on a freed table, Phoenix ordered a one liter of his so famous favorite grape juice. Kristoph had never taken it in the end, still pretending to not like grape, and he wondered if the grape juice was not, in reality, some vine. Yet, after smelling the thing, it really appeared to be grape juice in the end. How Phoenix was a big fan of this liquor was a wonder of this world.

"So, Wright, how's life going for you in these days?" Kristoph asked.

The ex-attorney took a long breath. "Everything's the same. I play, I hunt. My old friends come to visit sometimes, usually to clean my firm and my home, and we go to dinner somewhere."

"Ah yes. The heir to the Fey legacy and her little cousin, if I remember? Maya and Pearl?"

"You remember well, Kristoph. Maya has been pestering me to get together with my old girl Iris as soon as she get out from jail, thinking a new girl in my life might bring me back to the old, good time. But Pearls categorically refuses to see me with anyone else than her own cousin."

To this, a laugh got out from Phoenix's mouth.

"I've also been hunting a lot, but with these late shifts, this is getting a little harder to hunt for vampires. Sometimes I get no prime for two whole weeks!"

Thoughtful about it, Kristoph stroke his chin. "You have been unlucky indeed," the blond man added. "You might need to get new people under your wings, really."

Phoenix grinned at the words. Truthfully, he felt a little lonely. His life as an attorney taught him that working in team not only helped in his quest for the truth, but it also helped his moral. "That's… not a bad idea!" Phoenix sarcastically retorted. "Can you lend me one of your pupils?"

The blond man laughed back at his friend. "Sorry, Wright, my pupils are top notch hunters, proud to be part of the Gavin firm," Kristoph teasingly replied.

"Aww, c'mon Kristoph! Your pupils are barely even legal! Especially that one with the weird name… he still looks like a kid!"

The pianist man sighed in a slight exasperation. Kristoph appeared to have a lot of good company with his success as a private hunter, gaining quite a lot with the extra income thanks to his two assistants. "Now, now," Phoenix continued with a pause by taking another shot of his favorite drink before returning his attention to his friend. "Care to tell me what are you up to in these days?"

Surprisingly, a proud smile appeared on Kristoph's face at the question. "The usual," the angelic man answered. "Like you, I'm doing my job. I sometimes get a surprise visit from my brother."

"Ah, your fop brother," Phoenix disdainfully commented. "Apparently he'd been slowing down as a hunter and even as a prosecutor ever since the success of his band's second album."

Kristoph took no offense of his friend's reply. The older brother himself never really liked the music taste of Klavier's band, amicably called the Gavinners. "However, I'm more tempted to admit my pride has shifted toward my pupil Justice instead," Kristoph revealed, his lips curled up higher. "His talent as a hunter can even be compared to the most experienced hunters, and he's finally seriously studying law to follow your footstep, Wright. Even as of now, he's been officially admitted to the Ivy University and he'll start his first semester next August."

Upon learning of having a fanboy, Phoenix was unable to hide his tiny grin. "You've got… interesting kids under your wings." There was another pause before his next comment. "I hope he's not solely doing this to be a hero of the sort to his future clients."

The blond man exchanged another soft chuckle. "You could say so." Yet another awkward silence between the two reigned over them. "More like Justice wants to put his unusual skill in use to save people rather than only hunt for mindless night creatures."

"That's right, I remember you telling me about the siblings' skills for perceiving the truth from others' body language. Man, Kristoph, you should really lend them to me during bigger games!"

"However, if your pupil is all for being a defense attorney, I hope he knows about the dark side of the law, that not everything about the law is just. And unfortunately, the justice isn't for all."

"No pun intended, of course!"

Phoenix's laugh echoed through all the dining room, even drowning all the other customers' voices. In some way, this startled his friend a little bit. "I have faith in Justice, the boy, of course," Kristoph chuckled along, trying to avoid the name pun with no success. "He really is… incorruptible. But only the future shall let us know if time will be able to shape him with more vice or not."

The ex-attorney noticed the hint of pride and fear in his friend's voice, and somehow, he could sympathize along with him. The next generation of youngsters definitely needed to get in better shape to remodel this rotten world into a better place to live in.

"How about his little sister?" Phoenix asked, wondering why Kristoph would mostly speak of the older protégé instead of the younger one.

"Enigmar had been practicing her magic in secret, but from tricks she presented us so far, she's… quite talented, more than I thought. She often performs at the Wonder Bar during weekend's evenings, and Justice never misses a single show. Even if he doesn't want to, he always accompanies her since she still needs his protection. We never know when and where those spawns strike."

"From what I gathered, she dreams of continuing her family's magic legacy. The notary lawyer who stole their rights had been killed, so she's able to perform her family's tricks legally. Even if all of her surrounded acquaintances are hunters, she has no desire to become one, though she likes to accompany her brother into hunting sessions sometimes."

"Though her 'perceiving' skill isn't as great as her brother's, she's able to find the right time to focus without the use of a bracelet since she doesn't own one."

Attentively listening to his companion, Phoenix discretely turned his eyes to his glass, gently handling it with his hand before he took another mouthful of his juice. "You know," Phoenix began with a smirk, now staring at his friend intensely. "The way you speak about these two siblings, you really seem to like them like your own children. This doesn't look like you at all. You're going soft, Kristoph."

To that, Kristoph appeared to tense up, barely, but Phoenix didn't need any sixth sense to see through that.

"M-Maybe," the blond haired man muttered, straightforwardly.

* * *

><p>Date: June 24th 2021, 9:45 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Roof

Nowadays, most of modern structures roofs were built with a type of glass protection, preventing vampires to attack people wandering on the top since many of these creatures were able to jump from roofs to roofs. The condo where they lived was, fortunately, part these modern buildings. Luckily, even under these glass walls and ceiling, the bright full moon shined with its full and pure majestic light, a rare spectacle to enjoy when darkness was always lurking around. Clay came to enjoy the beautiful sky view on the top of the condo along with his best friend Apollo and his little sister Trucy. This new summer night gave a clear view above, and school just ended wonderfully for all of the three.

While yesterday was a prom night among the students for their last high school year that ended… quite wrongly, this time, the two teen friends decided to have a more private time to celebrate the end of school, along with little Trucy. She too deserved to have a celebration of her own. This time, no beers, no drinks, no controverted girls to flatter them and definitely no douchebags to ruin their evening.

At the horrible thought, Apollo gently placed his palm on the black eye he got yesterday at the prom when a drunken classmate girl started flirting with him. Then her robust boyfriend had to intervene by giving him quite a punch on the face. Of course, a fight ensued between the two young men, only to get separated by Clay, thankfully.

Using their small, cheap barbecue to grill some marshmallows, the excitement hit Trucy when she got her perfect brown and crispy puffy candy on her stick. She gulped the thing like a hungry beast until she realized how hot the thing was and she started to gasp for water. Nervously, Clay promptly got a bottle of water and splashed the whole content on her face, and this somehow felt relieving for her. Apollo panicked until a wet Trucy began to laugh, her tongue still out of her mouth, forcefully panting for cold air. Now, confusion went through the brother's mind.

"Huff! It's okay, Polly! Huff… Huff… I'm fine now!" the girl cried, grinning with her teeth plastered together, the white and brown substances from the candy still scattered between her teeth.

"Heh, don't scare us like that!" Clay blurted out, smirking along with her.

Apollo simply didn't know how to continue their silly conversation, so he simply watched them in their shenanigans, holding his stick with another crispy marshmallow on the tip, ready to be eaten. When the mood finally settled down, Trucy sat down, her arms resting on her knees, looking serenely at the full moon that shined above their heads. "The moon is pretty today!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, isn't it?" Clay replied. "My dream is to go over there one day, and even beyond!"

"Well, you're going to study Space Engineering at the Ivy University on August?" Trucy asked. "That must be so awesome! I wish I knew anything about engineering and science and stuff!"

Smiling at his little sister enthusiasm, the older brother finally let himself slid into their chat. "Don't push yourself too much, Truce," Apollo recommended. "It's fun to know many things, but even I don't know anything about space engineering, and it's okay, because I focus on the law instead, and you should focus on your magic!"

Trucy moped at her brother's comment. "I know that!" she yelled. "But I mean, science is so… science! Like, knowledge! And magic… well, there's no magic major in the University! And science is the future! And your law, well… It's not too scientific and cool!"

A burst of laugh suddenly escaped Clay's mouth when he couldn't contain it any longer while Apollo made a teasing frown along his friend's reaction. Trucy was unable to help herself either and she went wild with her giggles too. "You know, buddy, your little sister's right as always!"

"Ha, ha, very funny, Mr. Terran," a sarcastic voice got out from Apollo's chords.

To make up for the mocking words, Trucy snapped out of it and went even more joyful than ever. "Well, it's cool you two are going to the same university!" she exclaimed. "I mean, I'm still far behind from you guys!"

Clay approached Trucy to give her a childish pat on her head with a comforting smile to accompany him before he finally turned to the moon, once again. While staring at the celestial body, he remained silent before letting out a restful sigh.

"Do you think… the departed are watching us from above?" the black haired young man unexpectedly suggested.

The silence that came after the question lasted for at least a dozen of seconds, and then Apollo, at last, stared at the moon with his friend, a serene smile forming on his lips. "That… was a sudden question, Clay," Apollo broke the silence. "But yes, Mom, Uncle Zak, Uncle Valant, my Grand-Pa, even the father I never met and your mom too. They are probably all watching for us."

The mood felt really cheesy to the two young men, but suddenly, something felt tight around Apollo's hip. Looking down upon himself, the older brother carefully watched after his younger sister gently wrapped her arms around him, slightly sobbing, her face clutched onto her brother's chest. "Daddy, Mommy, Uncle Valant…" Trucy hiccupped with some warm tears flowing on her reddened cheeks. "I… still remember them… I miss them…"

Speechless, Clay glanced at the two siblings when Apollo finally curled himself to his sister's level, his arms enveloping the petite stature of the girl, leaving few calming pats on her back.

"I miss them too, Truce…"


	10. A Rookie Star

_Start of another trial from another in-game trial! I split it in few parts or else it might have too many pages._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. __I also do not own the in-game scripts that can be found in this chapter__. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 9: A Rookie Star**

Date: November 10th 2025, 6:02 PM  
>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room<p>

A soft knock was heard from the door entrance. Burying herself into the new world of the dramatic TV show that had just begun straight on the normal supper time, Trucy tried to ignored the knock, too much entitled to watch the entire thing until the end with no interruption. The first two minutes had been too much interesting to miss a single thing, but unfortunately, she could hear Vongole's whimpers above everything else. The golden retriever was impatiently standing straight up on all fours, her muzzle pointing at the door, not ever moving from her spot, waiting for the visitor to enter.

Trucy still refused to get up. After all, whomever was coming at this time of the day, especially on a boring Monday, must not be that important, right? Probably one of those door-to-door vendors offering some random services for random homes at random prices which she had no control over, and the master of the house, Mr. Gavin, was still asleep, as usual.

Another knock was heard, and this time, she silently cursed at the persistence of the one behind the door.

Wait.

She realized the TV terminal had a recording function.

To her fortune, after a nice but sore palm on her forehead, she quickly seized the remote control and pressed the recording button. Soon she bounced all the way to the door, leaving an "I'm coming!" shout.

After getting around Vongole that was practically directly parked in front of the door, Trucy gripped at the handle to unlock it and to open it slowly. A nice surprise awaited her.

Her older brother was behind the door, and before he even had the time to mutter a single word, both girls, human and furry alike, jumped on the young man whose eyes widened with astonishment.

"Polly!" Trucy cried to him while still holding him between her arms. "You should say something when you knock on the door, silly! And aside, I thought you had your own keys!"

Scratching the back of his head in a tiny embarrassment, Apollo proceeded to stroke the head of the golden retriever instead to release the stress that took over him in the instant. "Oh, sorry about that, Truce!" he uttered with a slight grin. "Actually, I was so nervous I forgot to lock the door before I went to my bar exam, and I also forgot my keys on the way!"

Trucy gasped at the answer. "Oh, that was why the door was unlocked when I came back from school! Bad Polly! We were lucky enough no baddies entered the place before I got here!"

The comment made the young man drop his head in shame. After leaving a long sigh, he let out another depressed "I'm sorry" remark.

"However," Apollo started with his newly came back chords of steel and a merrier smile. "I just need to get this off my chest for now!"

"I've passed the bar exam!"

A long exhalation struck the little sister upon learning of her brother's new achievement, and a huge, happy grin appeared on her face. She widely opened her arms high and quickly hopped on him to squeeze him by the neck. "Wow!" she yelled loudly with an obvious joy in her voice. "I'm so happy for you!"

When she finally let him go, Apollo nearly choked from the sudden released pressure in his lungs, prompting Trucy to teasingly laugh at him. "So, what was your final score?" she asked, patiently waiting for an answer.

Somehow, the question killed the joyful mood, and Apollo sank his head and arms with a sigh, yet again. Trucy felt a little disgraceful for asking; the answer might not be that pretty.

"Hum…" the young man murmured, looking to the ground, almost trying to avoid his sister's eyes. "Actually, I barely passed the minimum required score…"

"Oh…" was the only thing Trucy could mutter back before she went back into her usual enthusiast persona. "But hey! People don't care about grades! When a firm hires you, they won't ask for your grades, silly! The important thing is that you passed! So chin up, brother, and think big! You won't see many lawyers at the age of twenty-one!"

Apollo finally dared to gaze into Trucy's eyes, and this time, his stare was shining with hope. "Hey, actually, you're right!" he agreed. "As of today, I'm now a full pledged defense attorney! Wait until I tell this to everyone!"

"Anyone else knows yet?"

The man chuckled at the question. "No, I want you to know first, since you're my sister."

* * *

><p>Date: April 18th 2026, 1:15 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Office Room

It was the usual story. A newly graduated student tried to find a job, and they were unable to find any. Debts were thrust into their face as they were trying to cover their college fees the best they could with the help of no one, maybe except from the banks that ripped of them with their yummy interests. Apollo felt like he was being shoved into the same situation. Sometimes, he was wondering if the field he chose was the right one, especially when his friend Clay was immediately welcomed with open arms in a paid internship in their famous Cosmos Space Center. A paid internship! How rare were these things?

Klavier had suggested him to open his own firm or to offer his service with something smaller, like a notary lawyer. However, the thought of being a notary lawyer disgusted him when he reminded himself of the cursed attorney who ruined his family legacy. The prosecutor even suggested taking few smaller cases, like marriage separation cases or suing cases. Definitely not the best, but they'd do for now… if only he could even get ahold of one of those cases, at least...

In the end, Mr. Gavin had decided to add lawyering services into his own firm which could, hopefully, make things easier. News among the night life told about the famous hunter Kristoph Gavin now offering services for defending. The way the news spread felt tasteless to Apollo, but as long as there were clients, there were people to save, and, of course, money to earn!

And, to his surprise, on the crucial day of April 17th 2026, he received a call from _him_, requesting his service for a murder case.

From _Phoenix Wright_.

Former Ace Attorney, a man of truth.

And today, on the 18th, his mind was still numb at the thought of defending THE Phoenix Wright, the famous ex-attorney. He was the one who managed to have a perfect defense record ever since he started, until the forging incident which Apollo had always believed to be a staged incident. Not only the man had been accused of forging evidence seven long years ago, but now, he had been accused of something much worse: murder.

In a way, this fact gave some spur of excitement to the young defense attorney. He was finally able to save someone from false accusation, because, let's face it, there was no way someone like Mr. Wright was actually a murderer, right? Not when he was the one who dialed the police and even stayed at the crime scene, waiting for the force to arrest him!

Aside of that, even if Apollo actually never directly met the former lawyer, Mr. Wright was also a close friend to Mr. Gavin, the man who gave him and his sister everything. His mentor never made friends with murderers!

But in these moments of excitement, Apollo was nervous. He had to be ready for the trial which was scheduled on the 20th, at 10AM. A murder trial. He needed to be prepared, he needed to finish the paperwork for this, he needed… he needed…

He needed a coach!

He wasn't so sure if he could do it alone anymore, in a real courtroom.

The despair nearly hit him when he called Klavier to see if the prosecutor could help him, but unfortunately, he was on tour with his band.

Then a miracle appeared. Mr. Gavin was awake already at the start of the afternoon, unusual from him. "Good day, Justice," the man greeted, trying to appease the soul of his protégé. "Are you preparing for the trial?"

"Y-Yes, sir!" Apollo replied, a bit on the shaking side.

"Good. What do you know about the circumstance of the case?"

In the moment of tension, Apollo dug into all his papers, frenetically trying to find the one that described the murder summary along with the preliminary autopsy report for the victim. Mr. Gavin softly giggled at his pupil's anxiety. "Justice, don't tell me… you forgot about it."

"N-No!" the attorney suddenly shouted loudly, his chords of steel now in effect, making the older man wince at the piercing sound. This prompted the younger man to lower his tone with a scratch behind his head. "I-I know the thing… let's see…"

"So, according to the police and the prosecution's side, Mr. Wright was losing a match of poker against Mr. John Smith in the basement of the Borscht Bowl Club. The room where they played is called the Hydeout by the regular customers and the club employees. In the impulse of the instant, an angry Mr. Wright hit Mr. Smith with a bottle, fatally wounding the man. According to the preliminary autopsy report, the strike was so hard the death was instantaneous."

"Incidentally, another body was found in the kitchen of the restaurant. The victim happened to be one of the cooks, Mr. Bell Crooks, but his death was deemed irrelevant to the actual murder of Mr. Smith."

A sudden, humble silence went on Mr. Gavin's person. "Pray, tell me how finding the body of the cook is unrelated."

Then there was it, an abrupt feeling that took over the young man, a feeling he had not sensed since before he could even remember.

His bracelet tightened.

To this, Apollo shook his head subtly and tried to ignore the sensation. "H-Hum… I think… I-I…"

"Is something the matter?" Mr. Gavin asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No sir! Nothing!" Apollo finally blurted out. "So… the reason the murder of Mr. Crooks is unrelated is because the police found a vampire bite mark on his neck, indicating Mr. Wright couldn't have killed the man. There were indications the bite mark was starting to close, meaning the cook was indeed alive and was in the process of changing into a vampire. He must have used his gun to shoot himself in the head. The reason the police thinks it's a suicide case is because gun powder was found on his hands, indicating a close-ranged shot, and the gun was also found in his firing hand with his fingers prints."

The young man added another irrelevant comment to himself. "That must have been a nightmare for Mr. Crooks, knowing he'll lose his humanity and choosing death to avoid the nightmare that was coming!"

Upon looking back at his mentor…

…he felt it again. His bracelet.

No words were exchanged for a long minute that appeared like an eternity. The only thing linking both men were their gazes which were locked onto each other's like two magnets stuck together. Mr. Gavin tensed, even if it was only a small tension, but Apollo knew. Mr. Gavin knew the boy could feel it, and the older man almost gasped at his student's reaction.

However, the mentor did his best to straighten himself. "So that's why," the blond haired man added.

Apollo couldn't help but shake his head again. Mr. Gavin… couldn't be involved in the murder, couldn't he? Not… him…

"I might need to add that I was there yesterday night," Mr. Gavin revealed. "I came to visit my good friend, Mr. Wright, of course."

After hearing the new revelation, Apollo sighed in relief. So that was why his mentor tensed. After all, anyone who had been in a place where two murders had taken place must feel tense as much as Mr. Gavin. "I… see…" the attorney remarked.

"I was also wondering," the mentor started. "Have you visited your client at the detention center yet?"

"Actually no," Apollo sighed. "He insisted there's no need, and that there's enough evidences to prove him innocent."

Even so, Apollo couldn't help but feel something off about Mr. Gavin. Maybe it was the fact he appeared too comfortable about speaking of the trial that awaited him, as if… he had a relation to the law himself. He kept talking about his "friends of law" and he had helped him with the law subject in the past, but Apollo had never met any of those mysterious friends, save for acknowledging the famous ex-attorney Phoenix Wright.

"Mr. Gavin, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"You seem to… know a lot about the procedures of a trial."

"That wasn't a question, Justice."

"Huh, I know that! But let's go to the main point of the subject."

The older man took a heavy breath. Maybe he didn't really wish to speak about the subject, but Apollo was really curious, and to his luck, Mr. Gavin decided to comply and speak about it.

"I used to be a defense attorney in the past too."

Apollo virtually snorted at the reveal. After all these years living with him, half of his own life, there were so few facts he knew about the one who gave him and his sister everything. He knew Mr. Gavin was a secretive man, but THAT secretive? There were still many mysteries behind the mind of the angelic man, and the fact that he was a defense attorney was definitely one of the more interesting facts.

"S-Sir, why did you never tell us?" Apollo muffled, trying to form coherent words.

The older man merely laughed at the question. "Because there was no need to tell you," he revealed. "My past is mine as your past is yours."

However, the curiosity was killing the young man. He really wanted to know. "Then why did you stop your career as an attorney?"

"I see no reason to tell you this either. I have my own reasons." Mr. Gavin bluntly answered, but seeing the slight distress in the boy, the man changed his mood to fit his more virtuous persona. "But you don't need to worry about your job and upcoming trial, Justice. Even without the experience, I know you'll do fine. I trust you."

"And if this will make you feel better, I will agree to accompany you on your first trial."

To these words, Apollo's eyes and mouth went wide of surprise. This was the other miracle he needed: an assistant for his first trial, a murder trial. Mr. Gavin couldn't help himself but smile when he noticed the sparkles shining in his student's gaze. "R-Really? You'd do this for me?" Apollo's chords were unsteady, trembling of hope and joy.

"You're my protégé, and as your mentor, it is my duty to help you," Mr. Gavin serenely declared.

"T-Thank you, sir!" the young man exclaimed with a wide grin, his fists rising high toward the ceiling in a victory pose.

However, the next question kind of killed the exciting mood. "Where's your sister, by the way?" Mr. Gavin asked, unexpectedly changing the subject.

"Oh, she went to visit a friend at Nine-Tails Vale."

* * *

><p>Date: April 20th 2026, 9:31 AM<br>Place: District Court, Hallway

That was it: the big show, starting in a little less than thirty minutes.

Apollo had never felt so grateful to see most of the familiar faces in the hallway for his first trial: Trucy, Clay and even his friend's father. Normally, Clay would attend his internship at the Space Center, but he was given a day off at his request so he could watch the start of his friend's career.

"Hey, where are Mr. Gavin and your client?" Clay asked, turning his head around, trying to find the two men.

"They are resting in the lobby no. 3!" Trucy answered with a joyful jump. Even if law was a boring subject to her, since it was her own brother's time to shine, she was definitely much more enthusiast at the idea of seeing a family being one of the main stars of the trial.

"Huh, more like they are discussing in the lobby, Trucy, not 'resting'…" Apollo remarked.

Mr. Terran had been silent since the beginning, but he finally approached his son's friend with a hand on the attorney's shoulder as a sign of encouragement. "I trust you'll do good, boy!" the father voiced. "Good luck!"

"And remember, Polly, what matters is the truth, not a victory!" Trucy yelled, waving at his older brother before she dragged herself to the courtroom gallery along with Clay and his father.

Apollo watched them as they disappeared from the hallway, shyly waving back at them with a small "Thank you" the other three couldn't hear.

The truth, indeed.

He turned himself to the lobby where his mentor and his client were still discussing together about what may come to the trial. At some point, he could see a slight confusion plastered on Mr. Wright's expression as the discussion went along. When they noticed the rookie attorney present, they decided to interrupt their conversation and both turned to him.

Somehow, the aura of both men caused him to tense a little more than usual. It appeared that everything will fall upon him at once, causing his discomfort. "You look tense, Justice," Mr. Gavin started. "Wound up tight."

The young attorney almost jumped of edginess from his mentor's words. "W-Wound up, sir?" Apollo questioned, his trembling lips revealing some grinding teeth. "No! I'm loose! I'm fine!"

"You've been practicing those chords of steel of yours, haven't you?" the older man teased.

Actually, he was right, and Apollo flustered at the thought. "I-I'm fine!" he yelled, still shaken. "I got up at 5AM to do my voice workout! I'm fine!"

Somehow, Mr. Wright was watching the two of them in complete silence, ostensibly amused by the relation the mentor and the student shared together. It must be one of those "family" moments he used to be so familiar with when he was still an attorney himself.

"As you know, your client today is a good friend of mine." Mr. Gavin added. "I wouldn't want to let him down. We can't let this case fall through."

"Yes," was the unheard word that escaped Apollo's mouth when he realized his voice went back into a low mode. He shook his head to straighten up, this time, louder. "Yes! I'm fine, sir!"

With a chuckle, Mr. Gavin made a little exasperate nod. "One more thing," the mentor continued. "Don't say you're fine quite so much. People might take you the wrong way."

The young man gulped at the comment. Nobody wanted to see a nervous attorney in action after all. He had to show himself as a true competent one on his job. "I'll see you again in a few, so you might want to introduce yourself to the client."

How weird, Apollo had actually never met Mr. Wright directly, despite being his attorney and despite being a close acquaintance to his own mentor. It was finally time to have a serious discussion between the two and let everything between themselves known so he could focus on proving the man's innocence. Of course, Mr. Wright was innocent! Watching as Mr. Gavin disappeared from the room, he was now alone with his client.

He gulped again when their stares finally crossed each other, and the older man's eyes were glued to his. The smile the ex-attorney gave him… left him with chills in the back.

However, the accused eyes were full of confidence.

Someone had to start the conversation, and as the lawyer, Apollo felt the need to begin. "Good uh, morning!" he greeted with his introverted grin.

It took few seconds to get a reply from the older man. "Morning," Mr. Wright greeted back, and this time, his smile appeared to be more cryptic than gentle. "It's all up to you today."

Now, Apollo wasn't so sure how to continue the discussion anymore. "Um…" he murmured before he finally let himself loosen up. "Are you sure you're okay, I mean, with me?"

The comment left Mr. Wright speechless, causing him to raise an eyebrow with bewilderment. "I'm a rookie attorney, and you're an ex-ace attorney…" Apollo added with a quivering tone. "Don't you have… old friends in the law to… defend you?"

"So why…"

More silent seconds went by until the client muttered his next words, which prompted Apollo to become mute by disbelief.

"You'll see."


	11. The Truth

_The trial begins now! With few changes to fit the AU._

_I did my best to skip parts, or else we'd have 50 pages of a trial we already know about, unless you haven't played the game, but if you read this fic, you SHOULD have played the game. Also, the chapter is much longer than I expected, so I split it again. To make up for this, I'm posting two chapters at the same time._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. __I also do not own the in-game scripts that can be found in this chapter__. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 10: The Truth**

Date: April 20th 2026, 10:00 AM  
>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 2<p>

"The court is now in session for the trial of Phoenix Wright."

"The prosecution is ready, Your Honor."

The defense took a gulp. "Uh, the defense is, uh, fine!"

An awkward pause reigned in the courtroom. Even people in the gallery were unable to continue their gossips about how unprofessional the defense attorney appeared. From his bench, Apollo swore he heard his sister shouting "You can do it, Polly!"

Instead, the young attorney faintly coughed before finally letting out: "I mean ready! The defense is ready, Your Honor!"

The rookie attorney felt like he was going to faint from the pressure, but he had to keep up, for both his career and mainly his client. Still, the judge (and probably everyone else too) appeared to have noticed the sweat drops on the young man's face. "Your name was…Mr. Justice? And this is your first trial?" the old judge turned to the boy, his strict look behind his facial hair intimidating the poor newbie.

Apollo nervously gasped when he realized the judge, the primary player of this trial, was addressing him directly. "Y-Yes, Your Honor! But I'm fine! Really!" the defense called back with his raspy voice.

He gave another short cough. Mr. Gavin, standing to his right as an "assistant", felt like patting his student on the head like a lost pet. "Mr. Gavin," the old, loud and wise voice of the judge called the mentor. "It's good to see you again on the defense's bench. It's been a while. Let's see, how many years have passed since the last time we've seen you in a courtroom? Ten…?"

"Eleven years to be precise, Your Honor," the blond haired man answered humbly. "It's always an honor to meet you."

Suddenly, the judge's expression shifted to astonishment. "Oh, oh, oh! You still look as young as ever!" the old man exclaimed. "One of these days, you need to tell me the secret of your youth! You haven't changed the slightness!"

Stuck between the exchanged conversation between the judge and his mentor, Apollo turned to Mr. Gavin and, somehow, he started blinking uncontrollably before he quickly shook his head. So the man had told him the truth when he mentioned about being a defense attorney in the past. Yet, he found this coincidental that he stopped his law career eleven years ago, the number of years which exactly matched the time when he and Trucy had been found by him. What exactly happened to his mentor that gave him the decision to retire himself from the law?

He hoped that, somehow, he'll know by the end of the trial.

"Then let's begin," the judge hollered, returning to the trial. "The defendant may enter the courtroom."

Soon, on the witness stand stood his client, looking confident as ever with the smirk coated on his face.

Phoenix Wright, he shall know the truth about the full story surrounding him.

Upon seeing the defendant on the stand, the judge nodded in a rather regretful way. "This is truly an unfortunate turn of events," the old man commented. "I'm sorry we have to meet again under these circumstances. Long time no see, Mr. Wright."

The defense lead looked around him as the conversation continued between the defendant and the judge, and he could have sworn he saw a mocking grin on the prosecution's side. Mr. Winston Payne, was it? From the look of it, maybe Mr. Payne and Mr. Wright had a fight in the past, which prompted the old prosecutor to smile in revenge of what had become of the former ace attorney.

Even so, Mr. Wright never lost his cool.

After the tension was gone from the people in the room, Mr. Payne finally began to give a short summary of the case.

"The crime occurred at the Borscht Bowl Club… a Russian restaurant. The defendant, Phoenix Wright, took the victim, a customer and he hit him! Wham! On the head! Smack! Killed him cold."

From the gallery, Clay sighed in boredom. Even to these days, even after his best friend became an attorney and even after encouraging him to pursue the road of law, Clay still had never been too keen about the law and all the procedures of a trial. The only thing he knew about the law were those reality shows where people sued other people for baseless reasons, entertaining the normal crowd because of the "judges" giving some funny blasts on the people. Yet, even those shows weren't really about true laws.

He still insisted on seeing his friend's first trial to encourage him with his physical presence, because that was what best friends do, don't they?

Mr. Terran came after his son out of curiosity because he had never attended a trial before, like most of the people in the mass. He also came to see how great his son's friend was with his new career. The logic could tell that not many newly graduated students from law majors will start their career with a murder case! Though it appeared that, like Clay, he found the trial not too interesting so far.

However, unlike the two others, Trucy had been attentively listening to everything that had been happening so far. She had only been interested in the law in general ever since her brother had passed the bar exam and got his shiny defense attorney badge because, one day, she wanted to assist him during one of these trials. After all, being part of the trial instead of being a simple member of the audience looked much more fun.

And so far, even if she could totally feel the obvious tension from Apollo, whenever it was his turn to speak, she'd cheer him up, but not too loudly, or the bailiffs might throw her out from the gallery.

More words were exchanged between all the parties, and Mr. Payne explained in details the motive for the murder. Apparently, Mr. Wright flew into a rage when his opponent and victim, Mr. Smith, was winning the poker game match. A black and white photo of the crime scene submitted as evidence proved that the winning hand went to the victim.

Childishly, the judge went into a rant mode, mentioning that gambling with money unsupervised was a type of crime itself.

"Objection!" Mr. Gavin shouted.

Apollo jolted from the sudden shout from his mentor. It was the first time hearing him using his louder tone in a court, and he was impressed how skillful that sounded. His heart nearly melt with professional admiration.

"It is true that the defendant was engaged in a game of poker with the victim," his mentor protested. "Yet it was only that: a game, in the purest sense. A competition, Your Honor."

He continued after a short pause. "Yes, a test of wits, a silent clash of passions. Only the cards, their backs wreathed in blue flame, know its final outcome."

There was a stroppy silence in the courtroom when all eyes were turned to the defense's stand, such that people could almost hear some crickets singing. Apollo turned his head all around him, only to redden in insecurity, nearly wanting to hide under the bench while Mr. Gavin remained unfazed. His old, lawyering habits must have stayed in him after all these long years.

In the end, the judge was the one to break the silence. "Er, come again?" the old man's voiced, addressing his attention to the defense's mentor.

"The cards on the table had blue backs, Your Honor," the prosecution answered. "I believe the defense was waxing poetic in an attempt to mystify those present and impress women."

Few chuckles were heard among the gallery, and Trucy was among them, though she would never admit that she had no idea what Mr. Gavin meant at first. She was about to be ready to cry out a happy "thanks" to Mr. Payne for the explanation.

It was now time for Mr. Wright's testimony and Apollo was fully drawing his thoughts on his client. He mustn't draw his curiosity elsewhere, or he might be lost in his first trial.

Once again, he felt so thankful for Mr. Gavin's presence, virtually wanting to hug the man for giving all the help he needed. With him on his side, the cross-examination will go much, much more smoothly.

As the testimony went on, Apollo was already creating his own questions to be asked as soon as the cross-examination time will come…

* * *

><p>"It took a while, but Polly's performance brought a new witness on the stand!" Trucy silently yelled out to Clay and his father.<p>

"Oh, really?" Clay mumbled in confusion since he was half-following the on-going trial.

"Yeah!" the girl exclaimed a little louder before her tone lowered few octaves. "Although… I'd say Mr. Gavin did seventy-five percent of the job Polly should have done, but hey! It's his first trial, and Mr. Gavin used to be a top-notch defense attorney! The blondie's here to save the day!"

Mr. Terran came along to enter the silly discussion. "So who's the new witness?" the father asked, rubbing his light bearded chin.

"According to, well, herself, she's a waitress of the restaurant, and her name's Olga Orly!" Trucy replied. "She was apparently there when the murder happened!"

"Heh, that's weird," the raven-haired young man commented. "I mean, why didn't they bring her since the beginning if she saw everything? That'd save a lot of time!"

"I dunno," the girl simply replied, crossing her arms in skepticism. "Maybe the people here are being paid in hours of work, so they wanna drag the trial the longest they can!"

"Well, damn," Clay cursed. "My tummy's starting to growl!" He turned to his father. "Hey Dad, do you have some money? I'm going to get something in the vending machine and I forgot my wallet at home."

After hearing his son's demands, the man gave him a stern glare. In some way, it scared the son. "What?" the man exclaimed. "That's not how you ask your father for money, and… don't tell me… You rode to this courtroom with MY car, without YOUR driving license that was in YOUR forgotten wallet?"

Clay was unable to hide the shameful grin that came after his father scolding. "Er, I'm sorry, Dad!" the young man responded, massaging the back of his neck in embarrassment.

The father let out a small growl of protest after he finally gave in to his son's demand. He dived his hand in his pocket.

Until he realized he forgot his wallet too, in which slept his own driving license.

"Hum, well, we'll just have to be careful on the way home and drive safely. And we'll starve until the end of the trial," Mr. Terran dryly stated.

The new witness testimony brought new interesting information to light, mainly that she was the one who dealt the cards to the two players and that she saw Mr. Wright strangling the victim to death. It was at the witness's cross-examination that Apollo finally got to shine on his own. Without the help of Mr. Gavin, he discovered the fishy statement from the witness, right when she mentioned the strangling comment.

"Objection!" Apollo cried, his chords of steel now in effect. "Really? 'Strangled', you say? That's odd." He searched through his evidences list and presented to the court the autopsy report of the victim. "This report shows that the victim died of a blow to the head!"

To this, Ms. Orly let out a strident, short screech. The now confident Apollo gave the witness a self-assured stare which practically gave her away. "Ms. Orly!" he firmly called. "Really now, did you witness the crime!?"

Apollo's comment made the witness scream of confusion, and, from the gallery, Trucy raised her fist in the air along with Clay and his father, keeping on congratulating her brother for his awesome performance.

However, the witness still insisted of seeing the deed done by the defendant, but from what Trucy made out, it appeared that she was telling the truth. Unfortunately, Ms. Orly only confounded the actions made by the defendant, probably from the trauma she had endured for witnessing the crime.

But, to everyone else in the courtroom, including the own defense team, the accusation was starting to fall onto that confused witness.

There were still needs to hear more from the waitress, and in her new testimony, she revealed more about the details of the current game the defendant and the victim were playing. The chips present proved that Mr. Wright was losing. To her dismay, and with a lot of thoughts, while looking at the colored crime photo of the game table, Apollo finally turned things around by proving that Mr. Wright was actually winning the game. The motive of losing the game suddenly became irrelevant to the case.

The victory instant for the defense was short. Soon, Ms. Orly objected to him, claiming there was a cheat from the defendant in the end.

"Man, now I'm very confused!" Clay sighed as he leaned uncomfortably against his chair, looking more bored as ever. "Apollo is all awesome and stuff, but I wish I knew what they were talking about. I've never played poker and I don't even know how this works!"

"Well, sonny, I'm a poker player and I admit I'm still lost as well." Mr. Terran ranted along with his son.

"Wait! What are you guys talking about?" Trucy turned to them with a protesting tone. "I got everything! And I can tell that Ms. Orly is the fishy one, and that Polly is the awesome one!"

It was only later there was a talk about a "fifth" ace card which Ms. Orly kept insisting of having seen. From her worried look about that cursed card, she didn't seem to be lying. Apollo and Mr. Gavin were carefully looking at cards plays from both players, starting with the defendant's ones. Examining Mr. Wright's cards didn't seem to get anywhere.

"The card backs are red…" Apollo murmured to his aide, a little unsure of himself. "For some reason, I thought that they were using blue cards in the final hands…"

Instinctively, he turned to his mentor. "Didn't you, Mr. Gavin?"

A distinct pause struck the man as if he was in deep thoughts. "Huh?" Mr. Gavin snapped at his pupil's question, only to respond in confusion. "Oh, hmm. Which was it now…"

Apollo couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. From the eleven years he had lived with him, Mr. Gavin had barely acted that way, but he tossed his concern aside. Maybe it'd been too long since he had been in a courtroom, or maybe he was still not used to stay awake at this time of the day. As a hunter, he led a night life for what seemed like forever, after all!

Finding nothing irregular about Mr. Wright's game hand, he decided to look at Mr. Smith's instead.

Then he found the suspicious part of the victim's hand.

A blue card was among the red cards.

"Your Honor!" Apollo called the judge, presenting the victim's game hand. "Look at this! One of the victim's cards… The back is a different color!"

"T-That's impossible!" Ms. Orly objected in a panicked state. "But I put that card in Wright's hand… Ack!"

Upon realizing what she just said, Ms. Orly gasped with her two hands on her lips, wanting to curse herself for letting known part of the truth. Finally, a slip of the tongue from the cheating dealer, and that was what the defense exactly needed.

"Your Honor?" Mr. Gavin started, turning his attention to the judge. "Tell me, what is the easiest way to cheat at poker? I'll tell you. One merely needs a friend, a 'comrade' shall we say… The dealer!"

"Ms. Orly, she's the cheater. A professional, I'd wager."

Once again, another screech from the witness filled the air, indicating she had been found out.

Apollo added his thoughts in this whole ordeal. "It's not hard to imagine an altercation between her and the victim. Therefore, the defense accuses the witness, Ms. Olga Orly, of murder!"

That was the final touch in the case, finally, and the truth was drawn out. Ms. Orly fainted at the reveal.

"Wow, you did it, Polly!" Trucy cheered from the gallery, hugging both her brother's friend and Mr. Terran tightly. "The truth was found, and Mr. Wright was really innocent!"

"Yeah!" Clay exclaimed along with her. "I admit I was bored, but it's good to see my buddy wins his first murder trial!"

"I know, I know!" the girl continued. "Let's celebrate this in a fancy restaurant somewhere! I'm so hungry for some filet mignon!"

"Hmm, isn't filet mignon a little expensive, though?" Mr. Terran intervened.

"Yep, but it's Polly's first win! C'mon!"

"Objection!"

Suddenly, all mouths were shut and glares were looking at the defendant's direction. With a decisive smirk, Mr. Wright's next words were cold when he distantly glared at the defense's bench.

"You can't end the trial here, Your Honor. Not yet."

* * *

><p>Date: April 20th 2026, 11:52 AM<br>Place: District Court, Hallway

The judge ordered a twenty minutes recess, though this time, no one from the audience were able to enter the lobby where the defense team spoke with their defendant. Trucy was almost jumping non-stop in front of the lobby door while Clay and his father went to the restrooms. She wanted to see her brother, to hear where the trial will be going from his own mouth.

To her surprise, not too long after her wait, Mr. Gavin appeared from the entrance, and from the short instance the door opened, she saw a glimpse of her brother discussing with the defendant in private. Upon seeing the girl impatiently standing in front of the door, Mr. Gavin carefully closed the door behind and smiled at his second protégée. "Well, well, what a surprise, Trucy!" Mr. Gavin greeted her. "I'm sorry, I can't let you in, but your brother is doing great so far. Don't worry about him, but his defendant, however, I'm afraid he might ruin the case for him."

"Awww, that's too bad!" Trucy sadly exclaimed. However, something strangely stood out in Mr. Gavin's right hand. His fingers were firmly holding a small bottle of medicine she had never seen before. Since when the man took medications? Maybe he was having a headache from coming back into this courtroom, but he was known to be perfectly healthy, save for his "eating disorder". Still… "Where are you going, Mr. Gavin?"

"The judge called me to his chambers," the man replied, replacing his glasses, albeit a bit nervously. "I need to make haste, so I'll see you after the trial."

There, Trucy perceived it.

A demon on his right hand with a really weak, subtle twitch from his fingers gripping on the pills bottle.

She blinked a few times before her attention returned to her protector, but he was already too far from her. Why was the man slightly tense? What were these pills anyway?

Soon, Clay finally came back from the restrooms, letting out a long sigh of weariness. "Well, I guess Apollo hasn't won yet!" Clay remarked before giggling a little. "Man, this is going to last few more hours!"

But the girl's eyes were wide and devoid of life. For the first time, Clay could see worries in the usually cheerful teen. "Trucy? What's up?" the young man called her out, waving a hand directly in front of her face.

Trucy jolted from the act like he just freed her out from a hypnosis session. "Oh, nothing!" the cheerful demeanor coming back to the teen. "I was just thinking how my brother will proceed to find the true truth of this case! I mean, everything's so complicated, even to me!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Clay agreed with her. "If this continues, I'm pretty sure Mr. Wright will be found guilty at the end! I wonder who's that other, mysterious witness is!"

A horrified silence followed the girl once more at her friend's remark.

She had a hunch in her mind, but she was troubled at the thought. An earlier hint at the trial gave it away. However, she hoped she was mistaken, and she hoped the devil in the hand was just some type of magic illusion.

* * *

><p>Date: April 20th 2026, 12:23 AM<br>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 2

Finally, he could perceive it.

The faint twitch of the witness: whenever she was lying, she'd touched the back of her neck like she was in pain.

And it seemed her twitch was relevant to the case after all: it revealed she was not present during most of the events, at least not consciously since she was knocked out with a bottle that hit her on the back of her neck by the angry victim. Apparently, the card Ms. Orly had slipped into Mr. Wright play never appeared, meaning the failure of their plan to win against the genius poker player.

For a while, there was a moment of pure ecstasy when he could finally put his talent to use during a trial, and he was glad it worked. With this, Apollo will be able to save countless of falsely accused people.

At least, for now, he could easily focus on one falsely accused.

But then, if Ms. Orly wasn't the murderer, who could it be? Perhaps that second witness who was mentioned earlier?

Both the defense and the prosecution, and even the judge, were speechless on where the new lead left them. There was no way with their actual evidences to find their mysterious second witness, that "fourth" person.

However, one man among all the rest, objected to everyone's thoughts.

"I believe that, as the defense in this case, we are compelled to call Ms. Orly a 'big, fat liar'."

Apollo shook his head with disbelief. Were these words actually from his own mentor? Alas, it appeared so when the man continued to add further comments how the new facts she had brought gave her a motive for the murder.

The eyes of the woman were not only filled with anger, but pure fear as well. "What!? I didn't…" Ms. Orly desperately yelled out, nearly crying. "I'm no killer! It's a trap! Someone's trying to frame me!"

Then a savior came to her help, neither coming from the defense or the prosecution, but, surprisingly, the defendant himself. His small laugh echoed through the courtroom like a god watching the entire thing from above, with Mr. Wright being the top of them all. "Heh heh heh… What tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive," the defendant poetically pronounced. "So tangled, we catch ourselves in the process."

Mr. Wright finally glared toward the defense, mainly, Mr. Gavin himself. "Such a hasty conclusion," the black haired man continued with a sneer. "It's not like you, Kristoph Gavin."

From the gallery, it appeared Clay finally took interest of the trial that took another turn of events, and unlike his father who had now fallen asleep, he was carefully listening to the trial. However, someone broke his attention to the current trial, and his eyes were directed toward his friend's sister who was trying to contain her terror, but to no avail. Now the worry seriously took another level on him as he clutched onto the girl.

"Trucy, I know something is bothering you!" Clay called her, gently grabbing her shoulders. "Please, tell me…"

An uncomfortable moment came as Trucy stared at the young man with her piercing eyes, the same mesmerizing ones she shared with her brother. She then leaned her upper body against his. No words were needed to ask for his comfort.

"I think… I know the fourth person the defendant spoke about…" she murmured, firmly clutching to Clay's jacket in despair.

"Apollo…" Mr. Wright called his defense attorney. "Perhaps you know who I'm talking about, the fourth person."

The rookie lawyer didn't seem to know yet, however.

"That person who swapped the cards made one critical error," Mr. Wright added.

The young attorney was still in deep thoughts as he pressed a finger against his forehead. "They wasn't considering the color on the back of the cards…" Apollo went along with his client.

The defendant's smile curled up higher upon hearing the answer from his lawyer. "Right," Mr. Wright agreed. "But how could such an obvious mistake occur? The cards used for the last game were red. Yet, there is one person, here, in our court, who thought those cards were blue."

Trying to dig deeper into every seconds and minutes that had passed since the start of the trial, Apollo fiddled with his memories, until… he found the answer.

_Yes, a test of wits, a silent clash of passions. Only the cards, their backs wreathed in blue flame, know its final outcome._

Upon realizing the truth, his world suddenly went dark, his mind went numb, and he couldn't think straight anymore.

No, that couldn't be the truth he was aiming for.

"Mr... K-Kristoph Gavin…" Apollo finally spilled out. His voice was shaken, weakened and terrified when he sadly stared at his mentor. "Please, don't tell me…"

Even so, the only noticeable feature on the mentor's expression was still the same one he wore through the entire trial: the serene and angelic smile.

"Kristoph Gavin," Phoenix Wright called, smirking. "You were the fourth person that night."

To the defendant's deception, Apollo tried to overturn the new fact by himself. "B-But course Mr. Gavin knows the color of the cards!"

That was a desperate attempt, wasn't it, he thought to himself, since Mr. Wright already had a clever counter-attack. "… How could he?" the man started. "As you can see, the photo of the crime scene is black and white. You can't tell which of the cards are blue: the ones on the floor, or the table."

"B-But look! You can see the colors in this photo!"

Apollo was definitely looking more desperate the more he attempted to counter his client's facts. Mr. Wright almost pitied the boy when he held the colored photo of the crime scene like a young toddler trying to attract interest with a drawing he just created.

But the truth had to be known, even if this was going to hurt two people in this very courtroom.

"Yes," Mr. Wright said. The simple word gave Apollo a tiny fragment of hope that he was right; alas, the hope was no more rather quickly. "But when he said the cards were 'blue', it was well before this evidence came to light! Well, Kristoph?"

Mr. Gavin didn't mutter a word.

"Mr… Gavin?" Apollo tried to call him for a reaction, but with no success.

"Mr. Gavin!" the judge finally called, louder this time. "I-Is something the matter?"

Yet, the defense's mentor spoke. "Hmm? N-No, nothing. Excuse me, it was just so… sudden." He turned to his protégé's client. "Wright. You aren't seriously accusing me… are you?"

Oh, but he was, so far as giving the possibility that Mr. Gavin and the victim knew each other.

And in spite of his confusion, Apollo wished to know the truth of all. "Mr. Wright," the young attorney tried to hail louder. "The defense would like to request that you testify to the court…"

"Objection!"

A plea from Mr. Gavin, again. How unusual. "The defense would like to request no such thing," the mentor practically ordered. "Testimonies must relate to the case. How could anything happening before that game of poker be related? As I explained before, the defense believes that Ms. Orly…"

"Am I to assume you speak for Mr. Justice in this?" the judge strictly interrupted, now using his own court power to settle the man. "He is the defense, not you."

A feeble growl escaped the man's lips.

"Mr. Justice," the old man returned his attention to the young lawyer. "The matter of Mr. Wright's testimony is up to you."

Now everyone had their eyes pointed at the defense attorney. Apollo was known to have a stage fright, but this time, he paid no heed to the audience, nor did he even care. Heavily breathing with anguish, he knew which decision he had to choose, even if… even if… this will hurt his own convictions.

"…The defense… would like… to request that Mr. Wright testify to the court!"

This cost him a terrifying glare from his mentor, but the boy didn't dare to cross his stare. "Et tu, Justice?" Mr. Gavin bluntly said. "You would betray me, your mentor?"

The flames of the rage that burned inside Mr. Gavin's eyes died out as soon as he saw the gleam of sadness overwhelming the expression of his pupil. The boy finally turned his sorrowful eyes on his. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gavin… This isn't about loyalty… This is about… the truth…"

Mr. Gavin gave the boy a smile in the end.

A sincere one.

He taught him well.


	12. A Dark Savior

_Of course, I made Polly and Truce more emo to fit the AU thingy. You can scream OOC fest, but ever since AA5 exists, I guess emo Polly is possible._

_Finally, the end of the trial, with a twist!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. __I also do not own the in-game scripts that can be found in this chapter__. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 11: A Dark Savior**

Date: April 20th 2026, 1:45 PM  
>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 2<p>

When Mr. Wright finished his testimony, the audience was out of words. A new detail was brought about the fact that Mr. Gavin had indeed been at the Borscht Bowl Club the night of the murder. The fact was nothing new to Apollo and anyone who were acquaintances to the man since he was a "regular" to the place, but no one else was aware about it in the audience, including the judge and the prosecution.

Now, the defense attorney tried to concentrate his thoughts to the current testimony. However, he was fighting to wonder if the truth was really all that counted for him, like Mr. Gavin and even his little brother Klavier had always taught him, or rather the safety of his mentor.

That mentor who had saved him and his sister when they needed a savior.

Even Mr. Gavin appeared to stray away from his own convictions, now that he was left cornered in this room. "Justice," the man called. The name was direct and harsh, filled with authority.

"S-Sir!" the young lawyer straightened up his voice and posture at the name, nearly in a soldier way.

"He's lying, and you're going to expose him."

A pause struck Apollo before he answered. "Understood, sir."

Trucy saw it too, the distress of her brother even though he did his best to hide it. After all, he had never been really good to hide his tensions and lies. How ironic since he was the best at finding tensions and lies from others, no matter how hard they tried. The odd thought nearly gave her a small, pleasant time for giggles, but now, everything in front of her was darkness and despair. In a way, she was glad to see the whole thing from the gallery, unlike her brother who had to endure the complete ordeal and had to make the show go on. The thing must have been much harder for him….

…Especially when he was sitting right beside the man, the one who agreed to help him for his first trial, the one who was trying to hide the truth.

She tried to find more comfort by hanging onto Clay who simply covered the girl with his arms, attempting to give her the warmth she needed at the moment. "Don't worry," the young man gently whispered to her. "Everything will be fine! Apollo will be fine; Mr. Gavin will be fine too!"

But even Apollo's signature comforting words weren't working right now.

Another new fact came to everyone during Mr. Wright's cross-examination: he had tempted with one object in the crime scene, which was putting the victim's hat on his head.

"He wore it through our entire poker game," Mr. Wright indicated. "After calling the police, when I returned to the scene, his head was in full view. Shining bright… Just like in this photograph. I picked up his hat up of the floor and put it on his head."

Mr. Payne was surprised by the action of the defendant. As an ex-attorney, the man should have known it was technically illegal to temper with a crime scene before the arrival of the force. "Wh-Wh-Why'd you do a thing like that?" the old prosecutor spurted out.

"All I can say is… I'm sorry," Mr. Wright sighed. "But that's the only thing I touched at the crime scene."

Apollo didn't really like where this was going, but he went back to his high composure for the sake of the trial. "So… Ms. Orly didn't see it?" the young attorney added. "'It' being the victim's… er, his head."

"I'd think not" Mr. Wright answered. "She was out cold. I believe I was the only one who witnessed his head."

In the end, the cross-examination didn't get anywhere, and Mr. Gavin was starting to lose his patience, especially with all the talks about the bald head of the victim and the missing planted card.

"I believe that's enough of that."

All attention was turned to Mr. Gavin who just pronounced these words. "Mr. Gavin?" Apollo called him, but for once, the man ignored his protégé.

"This witness's 'testimony' is more like a 'travesty'. It's riddled with lies. I'm beginning to see how you came to lose your attorney's badge seven years ago…"

Apollo felt like he had to intervene. "Mr. Wright!" he cried to his client. "If you intend to ever tell the truth about this case… It's now or never!"

The defendant laughed. "Don't be misled. I haven't told a single lie here. When I noticed the 'trap'… I put the card in the bottle to dispose of it. And when I put the hat on the victim's head… Let's just say I had a reason for doing that as well."

He took out his cellphone. "That reason… is right here."

And soon enough, all ears were drawn to the recorded conversation on the cellphone: a quite, revealing one.

_Phoenix  
><em>_Kristoph. I seem to be in a bit of trouble._

_Kristoph  
><em>_What's this? Game not going well?_

_Phoenix  
><em>_Something like that._

_Kristoph  
><em>_That gentleman who challenged you… He turned out to be good?_

_Phoenix  
><em>_He turned out to be dead. Someone hit him. Hard._

_Kristoph  
><em>_You mean someone cracked that flawless bone china pate? It… wasn't you, was it?_

_Phoenix  
><em>_Me? Please. The cops should be here any minute._

...

The recording ended, leading the entire court in silence. It was when Apollo sensed like he was giving in to the truth, the gloomy one. "W-When… did he see this 'bone china pate'?" he questioned, strains audible in his voice.

"Perhaps you would like to explain this to the court?" Mr. Wright drew the attention to his defense lawyer's mentor. "Exactly how did you come by your privileged knowledge of the victim's head?"

However, Mr. Gavin refused to end the thing in defeat. "So, this is your 'reason'," the mentor began coldly. "The reason why you put the victim's hat back on. It's come down to this, has it… Phoenix Wright."

This little verbal fight had led people in the gallery to start gossiping among all, drowning the voices of the people on the stage. To this, the judge was left with no choice but to implement another recess, the final one, to prepare both Mr. Gavin and Mr. Wright for what may come as soon as the trial will be back in session.

In the court, however, two individuals didn't want the trial to continue, for their own sanity.

They were going to lose their savior, for sure.

* * *

><p>Date: April 20th 2026, 2:32 PM<br>Place: District Court, Lobby No. 3

Apollo's eyes widened when he found Trucy siting alone on the couch in the lobby. Her eyes appeared to have swollen from few tears that were still shining on her pupils. The older brother couldn't help but wrap his arms around her, each other rubbing their back for coziness.

"Polly…" the teen girl softly murmured to her brother. "Do you really think… Mr. Gavin did it?"

The young man almost refused to answer the question, but… what mattered was the truth, right? "That's what… the evidences are telling us…"

Both of them released each other, though Trucy now decided to stay leaned against her brother's side. Apollo put an arm around her shoulders, gently stroking her upper arm. "I… need to tell you this…" the sister revealed, her voice still hoarse from the crying. "I saw something on him today."

Apollo raised an eyebrow at her. "W-What do you mean?" he asked, his chords trembling.

"A twitch on his right hand, I saw a demon's face while he was addressing me during the last recess, as if… he had something to hide. He was holding some meds bottle in his hand…"

No, how was that possible? Everything seemed to fall against their savior, their angel, and now this. The medications comment appeared a little random, but he had never seen Mr. Gavin with any medication before. Were these related to his tension?

"I… don't want to lose him, Polly!" her tone was now getting frustrated. "He gave us everything! A home, food, friends, and even a family! He… can't be a murderer!"

However, her rant was greeted by silence. Apollo didn't know how to respond to that. He didn't want this to happen either, but if Mr. Gavin really did something bad, then… he had no choice but to find the truth.

When the recess was about to end, a curiosity went by their door: a sealed envelope was sleeping under the lobby entrance, and Trucy went to open it carefully. Something was inside it.

An ace card. A bloody ace card.

Was this the missing fifth ace?

"We should get back to our seats, Truce," Apollo remarked while adjusting his tie and clothes. "The recess is going to end soon."

* * *

><p>Date: April 20th 2026, 2:45 PM<br>Place: District Court, Courtroom No. 2

That was not part of the truth he was aiming for.

Mr. Gavin was now alone, proudly standing on the witness stand, directing his eyes on everyone in the audience, but particularly toward a certain young girl whom he got to know through all these past years.

Even Trucy was unable to cheer things up, but Mr. Gavin didn't mind.

He just gave her a reassured smile until his attention went back to his student's direction. Somehow, Mr. Wright, now being pretty much out of the guilty way, was now standing close to Apollo, all confident, almost all happy.

This angered him.

In order to make the trial continue, Apollo had no choice but to go along with the flow, as far as to mention that the only way to know about the bald head of the victim was to be present at the crime scene. And for once, Mr. Wright actually complimented Apollo on the thought, which, for an instant, flattered the young attorney.

In his testimony, Mr. Gavin finally admitted he had gone to the Hydeout because he apparently "felt", inside the man, the rage that was going to be used through the cheating method against his pianist friend. This was how he saw the bald head on the now dead man. He added he saw his friend with the murder weapon, probably after he was done with the deed.

It was now Apollo's turn to question the man, but he really had no idea how to deal with his own mentor. "Mr. Justice, are you prepared?" the judge asked him, seeing the obvious discomfort emanating from the defense attorney.

"Yes, Your Honor…" Apollo half-lied, his fists still glued on his desk as if he didn't really want to move from there.

The process of the questioning didn't seem to get anywhere until the fact about the swapping card color came back. This time, confident as ever, Mr. Gavin asked his student what reason the "real killer" had to swap the cards in the victim's hand.

Suddenly, Apollo remembered.

In the lobby, when he was speaking with Trucy… the envelope, with the ace card and blood on it.

Could that be… the evidence he needed?

Well, there was nothing to lose now that they had gone so far in the trial, so he might as well show that bloodied ace card.

However, unbeknownst to him, that card was going to be the evidence that will mark Mr. Gavin's end. As soon as his mentor saw the card, he panicked, twitching and tensing all around, clutching against his own body.

"In-Inconceivable!" Mr. Gavin loudly mumbled from the shock, now drawing his concern to his clueless protégé. "How could you… What are you doing with that card!?"

It was not every day Apollo saw his mentor acting that way, and this led him to become speechless. Mr. Wright came to his rescue by answering for his attorney. "Oh, that card? It's mine," the defendant answered. "That is, I picked it up at the Borscht Bowl Club that night after the murder had occurred."

"N… No! Impossible! Unacceptable!" Mr. Gavin added, loss of words. "The court can't accept this evidence! It's a fraud!"

"A fraud?" Mr. Wright commented, his smirk wider now. "How can you be so sure? I would think the only person who could claim it was a fraud would be the one who took the real card from the crime scene… The real killer!"

Suddenly, the world had fallen upon the young defense attorney when his mentor and his client were arguing about what really happened in the crime scene. He had a hard time keeping up his attention on them because he realized that everything was surely lost now.

Why the hell did he present that card? For the truth, again?

Mr. Wright pretended that the card must have been taken away by the murderer since that one drop of blood would have been decisive evidence. Shortly enough, they managed to prove with that single card that there was a secret passage behind the cupboard that stood straight behind the position where the victim was sitting, rendering the position of the "second witness" useless. Thanks to the new fact, the new cupboard position completely hid the window where Mr. Gavin pretended to stand while witnessing the crime.

Everything pointed at him again.

When the judge finally cleared Mr. Wright from all suspicion, Mr. Gavin let out another loud objection with an obscure giggle.

"The defendant is 'cleared of all suspicion'?" the defense mentor commented, nearly indignantly. "This is hardly the time for jokes, Your Honor. Mr. Wright hasn't proven anyone's guilt or innocence here. What he has done is to use illegal evidence to put the blame on someone else!"

"I-Illegal evidence?" the judge gasped at the man's observation, but he was being interrupted by the defendant's objection.

"Let me ask you, Mr. Gavin," Mr. Wright started with protest. "Is there still any reason, at the present, to suspect me of wrongdoing?"

A barely noticeable pause stood before Mr. Gavin replied. "...Of course. This bottle, for instance. How do you intend to explain away your fingerprints on the murder weapon? The court, and this case, demand an explanation. I can think of only one reason why one would hold a bottle upside-down, and that is to hit someone with the bottom of the bottle. Well, Your Honor?"

A sudden gleam shined in Apollo's eyes at his mentor's objection. Maybe… maybe there was still a little hope that Mr. Gavin was not in the guilty party… A tiny fragment of hope was all he wished for. At this point, he had no care to see his defendant innocent or guilty, as long as Mr. Gavin will run free, once again…

However, when the attention was returned to him, asking for an explanation for Mr. Wright's fingerprints on the murder weapon, while he was skimming through all the evidences, he found his answer. A quite, simple answer.

In one of the photos of the club, a box of few bottles were placed near the pianist's feet. Naturally, if he were to pick up one of these bottles, he'd had to pick them upside-down.

And after examining the other bottles in that box, the famous cheated card added by Ms. Orly was found in one of them, proving the bottles were swapped. Only one person could have done it.

Kristoph Gavin.

The man was cornered.

Stuck between the four walls of this very courtroom, no criminal were able to leak out from them, where everyone were a witness to the baddies.

Immediately, the bailiffs ran to the mad man, quickly handcuffing him on the back. Mr. Gavin surrendered easily with no resistance, smiling at everyone in the audience, but especially to his "friend", Phoenix Wright.

When the judge pronounced his "not guilty" verdict, the audience applauded, but two people in this very courtroom couldn't think straight anymore.

Apollo Justice and Trucy Enigmar.

Their world crumbled in front of them as their dark savior was taken away from them.

It was the end.

* * *

><p>"Objection!"<p>

That objection from the man of truth, Phoenix Wright, echoed like a bullet in their heart along with a soft but slight diabolical laugh.

Wait, what else was needed to be added? Mr. Gavin was already destroyed, his castle was smashed, his fame had been crushed to dust. He was going to rot in a cell for he didn't know how long. Please, be merciful to the man Mr. Wright, the young attorney thought.

"Your Honor, please, I haven't finished," the newly freed defendant added while Mr. Gavin, attached by a pair of solid handcuffs, was taken away by the bailiffs.

"Mr. Wright," the judge started. "The trial cannot continue. I already passed my verdict."

The ex-attorney merely laughed again at the comment. "I know, Your Honor. However, this isn't about the trial. Please, hear me out. We need to get at the bottom of this."

"Five minutes. No more. I promise… Your Honor."

Apollo jolted. He remembered these words very well. Klavier begged with these very same words seven years ago before the fall of the ace attorney. In spite of the vengeful tone, Phoenix Wright had used them again today, this time with a shadowy mocking voice.

The old man gave the defendant a glare, deep in thought as he rubbed his beard. "Well, you certainly make it look rather important, Mr. Wright. I guess I can grant you these five minutes."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Gavin turned over, glaring at his old friend with an icy frown, but he still had his angelic smile somehow. How could his mentor keep his cool like that?

"Thank you," Mr. Wright commented. "Now, all of you seem to forget about the other victim of the regretful ordeal. I'm sure Your Honor knows what I'm talking about."

However, the judge lowered his eyes with a slight disgrace. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wright, I might have really forgotten. I'm working in a lot of cases…"

"Well then," Mr. Wright said, now turning his attention to the lone defense attorney whose state was still in shock. "Let's ask our young 'ace' attorney, shall we?"

Apollo glared at his client in utter confusion, his eyes still widened by the worries, his low eyebrows indicating a mix of worries and sadness, his fists firmly laying on the desk with anger, his teeth gritting in resentment. He took a heavy breath, digging in his thoughts to find out what his client was actually talking about.

And when he realized it, he froze in terror.

He really hoped that wasn't the case. After all these years…

"Y-You mean… the case about the… death of the restaurant cook, Mr. Bell Crook?" Apollo asked, his voice trembling.

"You remember well, Apollo," Mr. Wright complimented with a sneer.

"B-But the victim had been devoured by a v-vampire and he sh-shot himself since he was becoming one, which is why this has never been brought in this trial!"

"Really. Do you really think he killed himself?"

There was a silence.

"Then who killed him?" Apollo questioned straight to the main point, his voice getting more and more aggressive.

The answer surprised everyone. "I did," the defendant admitted, though he remained unfazed.

In a fury, the defense attorney hit the desk with his fists once again. "Mr. Wright, why did you do this?" he yelled out, almost begging him to go directly to the reason for this barbaric act.

"Bell actually asked for this," Mr. Wright simply answered. "He was changing into a vampire after all. After I called Mr. Gavin, I went back to the crime scene via the hidden corridor, which, as you might remember, happened to be linked to the kitchen. That was when I found Bell, clutching against the wall, bleeding and panicking, the poor man. He didn't have enough time to clearly see the one who bit him and left him for dead, but he remembered hearing someone coming out from the hidden passage."

"He reached for his gun, but he couldn't do it himself. As a hunter myself, I had easier time to kill vampires. Though killing one while he was becoming one of them had been a little harder for me, I admit, even if it is perfectly legal to kill a human changing into a vampire."

"As you might know, the little smiley badge on my cute beanie has a recording device on it. I've decided to record the entire thing, just in case… Shall I play this now?"

Mr. Wright pressed a button on his macaroon, and to everyone's surprise, a sound recording played itself.

_Bell  
><em>_*coughs* Phoenix…_

_Phoenix  
><em>_Bell! Are you… Oh no…_

_Bell  
><em>_I-I've been b-b-bitten… He left me for dead, but… I-I'm not… I'm going to… to… be one…_

_Phoenix  
><em>_No… Where__'__s the vampire? Where has he gone?_

_Bell  
><em>_I-I don't know… I fainted… But I saw him coming out from the Hydeout… I remember… Bright blond hair… That's all I-I r-r-remember…_

_Phoenix  
><em>_You can't mean…_

_Bell  
><em>_P-Please, Phoenix… I c-c-can't do it… Take this… g-gun…_

...

The recording was cut here.

No one said a thing until few sobs resonated through the grand room.

They came from the defense attorney.

_Coming out from the Hydeout. Bright blond hair._ Those words echoed through his mind while he tried to shoo them away. His eyes were wandering around aimlessly until they locked themselves to his mentor's. The man was still giving him a smile despite all, a serene one, but Apollo could feel it, the bracelet tightening forcefully around his wrist when his attention was still drawn onto the man.

Mr. Gavin was feeling extremely tense and he was scared.

"You've no proof, Wright." Mr. Gavin bluntly commented.

Mr. Wright laughed at the man. "No, but Kristoph, since when do we need a proof or even a crime to punish a vampire?"

A… vampire…?

So, that was the truth, the whole truth? Apollo aimed for the truth just like he had been taught by his mentor, his friends, his sister, everyone. But… that wasn't the truth he was aiming for.

"Mr… Gavin…" the young man finally managed to mutter, addressing to his savior, his wide eyes were now bathing in barely visible tears. "I-If… you're not… one of them… then… you have no objection to prove yourself as… one of… us?"

However, to this, Mr. Gavin let out a soft chuckle. "Even if I have, I cannot hide anything from you anymore, can't I, Apollo Justice, now that the truth had been drawn out?"

And this time, Mr. Gavin widely smiled, letting out a gentle, hardly audible primal snarl, with visible sharp teeth under his upper lips.

The world had fallen upon the siblings.

"However, can I have… few last words?" Mr. Gavin giggled, and his concern was brought to his two protégés, to everyone's surprise. He could clearly see it, in the gallery, the sad eyes of his student's little sister, held by the two men who accompanied her. However, despite all, the girl managed to free herself from them and run through the audience, shoving anyone on her way, not even considering running around them with precaution. When she reached her destination, she aimlessly gripped onto her brother who welcomed her in his arms.

"Justice, Trucy. I'm surprised you haven't found out about my… true nature earlier, considering so many hints pointed to me as one of these so called 'dark' spawns. Your faith in me was… rather strong, almost blind, if I can say, so much even your little… sixth sense couldn't find me out. Have you ever wondered of the reason why I stopped my career as an attorney eleven years ago? The reason is simple: it was the year I was… reborn, a month before I found both of you."

"Of course, I couldn't live under the sun anymore, I couldn't even do my job properly, so I had no choice but to change my way of life. Oh! How hard it was to keep my sanity intact after I was reborn, but… there is a way, a way for us to keep our… humanity."

"I'm pretty sure you're thinking: 'But how can this be possible? How Mr. Gavin can possibly be a vampire? He was a hunter himself, for god's sake!'. Heh heh heh… such ignorance in humans gives me laughs."

"If I were to use the same fact on humans, suddenly, everything makes sense. How can a vampire kill another vampire? The same way a human can kill another human, simple as that."

"I admit, the reason I'm a hunter is… because I loved being a human being. With my newly acquired senses, I knew I could put them to use by hunting vampires and earning my life in the process. After all, we live in a country where material goods are part of the pleasures of life, and money is needed for this. I have no sympathy for… my own kinds."

"Yes, I have killed Smith because he was a rotten, cheating man. I also have killed many others for my own survival. I have also brought few in the darkness with me when we were short on hunted primes, but rest assured that I only changed the foul ones."

"Yes, I am the one who devoured that accursed lawyer Davon Malone, ten years ago, for stealing and ruining the life of two innocent children. How tasteless his blood was! So bitter, so cold. I still remember its disgusting taste to this day!"

"Justice, I admit, when I found you and your sister, clutching against each other under that cold raining night in the Vitamin Square, with your bracelet that shined despite the darkness of that day, the first thing that came to my mind was how I will be able to make use of your… Gramarye power. And how useful your sixth sense was to me! Humans and vampires smell the same and it is even hard for a spawn like myself to distinguish ones from others! But you… you could perceive them, discern them…"

"Every day, I told myself that as soon as you and your sister will discover my dark side, I'd… change you both…"

"…because I could never bring myself to kill you. Your power made my job more lucrative than ever!"

The two siblings were at loss of words. So, that was… their savior's plan all along. He didn't save them out of compassion, but for profit.

They refused to believe it.

"I'm a rotten man. I did all of this, because I'm an evil being devoid of love and empathy. Isn't that enough?"

A dark and loud laugh uncontrollably escaped the vampire's lips.

"Objection!"

The protest came from the low-spirited attorney, his voice sounded like he was begging, begging for pity from the authority of his court. "Mr. Gavin… I… object… Y-You can't be… one of them… You… can rationally think like us… You came to this trial under a sunny weather outside and yet, your skin d-didn't burn… A-And y-"

"Justice," Mr. Gavin interrupted. "You think too much. There's no need to stress yourself over this. After all, I am… one of your hunted preys. Think of me as one of them, because that's what I am."

"However, if you must know the answer to your wonders, I'll give you a hint. To my knowledge, one human, a genius psychologist and pharmacologist who worked in the famed Cosmos Space Center, was the only one on this entire little Earth could truly understand us, filthy vampires. Unfortunately, she is long gone from this world."

"Dr. Cykes, that is all."

"Bailiffs," he returned his attention to the ones escorting him, smiling at them, ignoring the strong reaction that came upon the two sobbing siblings. "Don't let them see my execution, for their sanity, at least."

These were his last words until the bailiffs escorted him to the backroom. Soon enough, few seconds after the door shut firmly, a gunshot resounded through the courtroom, nearly sounding forever through the siblings' ears. A swift and painless end was the sweetest thing Mr. Gavin could have asked for.

In the courtroom, the only one who was still smiling was Phoenix Wright.


	13. A New Chapter of Life

_So what's going to happen to our favorite siblings? And I'm pretty sure Phoenix's parents aren't dead._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 12: A New Chapter of Life**

Date: April 25th 2026, 11:12 AM  
>Place: Gavin's Condo, Hallway<p>

"Hey Apollo, it's Clay!"

The young astronaut intern decided to use his day off to visit his old buddy instead of digging up into his vast amount of studies or enduring all the physical trainings he had to do for his astronaut job. However, after few, rather shy knocks on the door, no one came to welcome him. He knew the siblings were somewhere in, but he was surprised to hear no clicking sounds from the paws of their little furry friend who'd usually come waiting at the door with some whimpers, waiting for the guest to enter.

It had been almost a week since that significant trial, and not once a soul saw them getting out from their residence which they inherited from the previous owner. It appeared that a legacy from a vampire was still accepted as a genuine one, to their best…

Clay couldn't still believe it. After all these years he had known the little family, never once the thought of Mr. Gavin as a vampire crossed. To him, it was all usual for a hunter to live a nocturnal life, to never eat in front of them, to have a somehow recluse life. This sounded even more unbelievable when the two protégés living with him all along never knew the fact either. Even when Clay had started to have few hunting sessions with his friends and his mentor, no hints were ever given to show he was one of their prey himself.

He knew, as a friend, that he had to do something to help these siblings out in these times of need, just like Apollo did when his mother had… disappeared.

"Apollo? Trucy?" Clay called again, a little louder this time. "I know you guys are in here! Let me in! Pretty, please?"

It seemed patience had its virtue when, after about two minutes of waiting, the door finally opened. He waited for the person behind the door to reveal himself or herself: it was Trucy, her smile forcing itself to please the young man like there was nothing to worry about. "Hey there, Trucy!" the young man softly cried.

"Hey there, Clay!" the girl cheered, her eyes was still gleaming with some joy at seeing a new face in a while. "I'm glad you came! Come in!"

With an awkward silence, Clay stood still after entering the condo. Everything inside appeared like usual, though he couldn't see his friend anywhere, nor their golden retriever came to welcome him like she always did. "Where are Apollo and Vongole?"

There was a little moment of sadness as soon as the name of their furry friend came through his mouth, and Clay immediately guessed what happened.

"Vongole… She's gone too," Trucy replied, her half-closed eyes staring at the pillow where the dog usually slept. "She was getting old for her doggy years anyway, and with Mr. Gavin's gone, I think this made her sad and lonely, so…"

After hearing the news, Clay left a soft sigh before laying a hand on her shoulder, leaving a regretful expression. "I'm sorry, Trucy… I didn't know for Vongole…"

"It's okay!" the girl merrily replied. "We're fine now! Though I can't say the same for Polly, but… we still get to live here, in our home! Since Mr. Gavin already paid the condo at full since a while, well, there's almost no bill to pay for staying here!"

"Objection!" Clay suddenly protested in a mocking tone, pointing his finger high, mimicking his best friend. "You just mentioned 'We're fine now', but immediately after, you said 'I can't say the same for Polly'! A clear contradiction!"

The silly, unexpected objection from the young man prompted the girl to let escape a cheesy chuckle, being close to let out warm, cozy tears. "T-Thanks Clay! I needed that!"

When the whole atmosphere in the room had cooled down, Clay finally sat down with Trucy on the couch. "So, how were you guys doing in these last days? I texted you two, but I never got any reply, so I was worried."

Trucy took a long breath before she answered. "I'm sorry if we didn't reply. Actually, we both forgot to charge our phones and their batteries probably died out. And… I guess we never thought about recharging them! Ha, Ha…"

"Surprisingly, Klavier didn't appear to be emotionally hurt as us. It might be the fact Klavier and Mr. Gavin didn't get to see each other often, or they weren't that close. Or maybe he didn't want to appear too troubled for the show business since he's now a famous rock star. But he kinda understood the situation because he's a hunter himself and knows when duty and deeds have to be done… even if the prey was to be his own brother!"

"Polly, he took it… harder than we did. He blames himself for what happened, and… he's confused about the whole thing. I mean, he was a vampire hunter, and our protector was a vampire. Before the trial, he thought that vampires were all thoughtless creatures looking for blood, but after seeing how calculating Mr. Gavin was… We both started seeing them in a different light. He still doesn't know if he wants to keep going with the hunting thing!"

"And despite all of this, we… still have affection for the one who saved us! Mr. Gavin was kind to us! I'm sure he made himself all dark and evil and stuff on that trial day so we don't pity him!"

At the same moment, they could hear another creaking sound coming from the siblings' room door with few shy footsteps along on the floor, revealing the older sibling. His dark eyes bags were being his prominent features on his exhausted expression. On first sight, it appeared that Clay's friend had not slept much in these latest days.

"Hey Clay, what's up?" Apollo called his friend with a rather dying voice and a fake, half smile plastered on his lips.

Clay felt embarrassed to see his buddy in this state, but he knew he had to stay strong minded for them. "Apollo! How have you been? I've been doing good, but I've been worried about y-"

"I'm fine!" the young lawyer interrupted fairly loudly, almost aggressively to the point both Clay and Trucy backed away in a jolt. Upon noticing the reaction he had caused to the two, Apollo dropped his head in a shameful way, leaving out a long, exhausted sigh.

The male brunette scratched the back of his neck as an attempt to show his mortification. To tell the truth, he never felt so glad to see his friend in these dark times because he and his sister needed some… company. "I-I'm sorry!" Apollo rectified himself nervously before he finally relaxed down. "But really, Clay, thank you for coming here. You're really a best friend."

"D-Dude, no problem!" Clay exclaimed with a grin, blushing. "That's what friends are for!"

At that moment, Trucy went to charge their phones, and when she lightened the devices, she noticed about thirty missing text messages along with a dozen of missing calls from few friends, including one from her own best friend, a certain Jinxie.

Apollo's phone got about the same amount of texts and missing calls, and suddenly, the siblings felt a little less lonely in their world.

* * *

><p>"So, what do you think you're going to do?" Clay asked his best friend after he took a sip of his favorite beer.<p>

"I'm not too sure to tell the truth." Apollo honestly answered before he took a sip with his buddy. "Hey, Clay, do you think the Space Center needs a secretary or something?"

The astronaut intern laughed at the mockery. "C'mon, Pollo, you can do much more than a secretary!" he exclaimed relatively loudly. "You've got a defense attorney badge and everything! You're a certified attorney who can defend the innocents and all!"

Apollo chuckled. "I… know that… but, after that fiasco on my very first trial, I'm not sure if I want to do it anymore… Especially after learning that the truth isn't always the prettiest thing…"

"That reminds me," Clay started, rubbing his chin. "Have you thought about Phoenix Wright's offer?"

"W-What?" the brunette blurted out abruptly, almost spiting the liquid from his mouth. "Joining the firm of that forging ex-attorney? No thanks! Not after what he'd done to Mr. Gavin!"

Apollo could never forget that fateful day, only few minutes after the execution of his protector. While he and Trucy were still in the shock of the moment, Mr. Wright came to them, though his more confident smile had disappeared, leaving a sadder expression on the man who literally ruined the life of their savior.

"_I'm sorry for what happened to your mentor," the defendant told them with a look of concern. "But I had no choice. He was a murderer and a vampire, and worse of it all, sooner or later, I knew he'd… change you both."_

_Apollo's clenching hands were trembling of anger and confusion. He didn't know if he had to thank the man for saving them, or hit him for making him present a forged evidence on his very first trial and for literally making Mr. Gavin's life an insult to the entire world._

_At the time, Trucy turned to the now innocent defendant, her teeth clasping with sorrow and her eyes shimmering with tears. "If you knew he was a vampire, then why didn't you kill him in private instead of playing the attention whore, drama queen by revealing it to the world?" the girl cried to the man, still struggling to contain her aggressive fists before she'd hit him. "Why bringing him to a trial for everyone to see and then making my brother bringing that fate on him?"_

_Tensed at the girl's reaction, Mr. Wright looked into no direction in particular before he shifted with his beanie as a way to relieve his own stress. "Actually, I just learned it on the same day as the murder," the man revealed, not too content with his own comment. "As a part-hunter myself, I swear on the grave of my parents that I would have killed him long before, only if I knew. Even to this day, I still don't understand how he could have been all nice and pretty with you two, but… maybe your mentor was right about one thing."_

"_Perhaps we, humans, can't still fully comprehend these creatures."_

"_However, the trial was needed to find the true culprit of John Smith's murder. Even the murder of a rotten man is still murder, and as an… ex-attorney, I thought I had no choice but to do my part as a citizen of this country."_

"_A forging ex-attorney," Apollo promptly added with his dark, sinister gaze glaring at his client. "Just like seven years ago…"_

_Lost in his own thoughts, the ceiling suddenly appeared to look interesting to Mr. Wright's eyes as he was contemplating the bright, dull wall above his head. "So you know about that trial," the older man mysteriously reported, like an enigma. "Maybe… I did that, seven years ago. But, I guess it doesn't matter much now."_

_The man left a soft giggle for the upcoming move to the siblings, unsure if he'd do the right thing by lending them a small business card. He was now smiling at them, genuinely. "Apollo," he called his attorney, the younger man curiously gazing at the card. "You're a great attorney. As an old… friend of Kristoph, he had told me few stories about you both. You're not only a good attorney, but you and your best friend are also very good hunters for his hunting firm. Also, he mentioned how great of a magician you're becoming, Trucy."_

"_And whenever he was speaking of you both, I could see it in his eyes, and that was pride."_

_The two siblings still had their attention brought on the small card, until Trucy finally picked it up. It was Mr. Wright business card for his firm, so originally called the Wright Hunting Firm._

"_You two have talents," Mr. Wright continued. "Drop by and come to say 'hi' sometimes! Don't be strangers!"_

Whenever Apollo reminded himself of that moment, some anger faded away from his mind. Just like the first time he had learned about the feats of the man of truth when he was a mere adolescent, Phoenix Wright didn't appear like some fishy man who'd just use people for his own goals. Although that man still "used" him to convict and condemn his mentor… But then, Mr. Gavin didn't appear fishy either during all those eleven years.

After a lot of thoughts, he still wasn't sure if he could trust Mr. Wright again.

He took out the now worn out business card the man gave to Trucy. He would have thrown it in the trash if Mr. Wright wasn't such an enigma, and his curiosity to learn more to solve this enigma was raging inside him. Why was curiosity part of humanity? Why did he care so much to learn the truth?

"I'm… not ready to see him," Apollo finally told his friend, still holding the card in his hand. "Not yet, at least."

"Ah, I understand," Clay commented. "But you really need to find a job sooner or later, dude! I mean, Mr. Gavin gave you everything, even after his death, but money doesn't grow on trees! And besides, I'm sure if you work with a great ex-attorney like Mr. Wright, you'll have a better time living your dream of helping people!"

Once Clay finished his sentence, Apollo sighed. He exasperatedly pressed his head between his hands before he leaned himself toward the table, with some light, tired tears coming out from the exhaustion and everything. He finally gave his friend a desperate smile when he murmured these words: "Maybe you're right… It's… going to be a new chapter in our life…"

"However, again, not now, we still need our time to… grieve..."

"We'll be fine."

* * *

><p>Date: June 16th 2026, 10:25 AM<br>Place: Wright Hunting Firm, Entrance

Apollo and Trucy, loss of breath from the running they just did, looked together at the entrance door then at the worn business card stuck in their hands. They blinked a few times before realizing that was really the right address. The entrance door was in a bad shape, but at least it was not locked. Both entered the firm in a fast, furious manner, with Apollo using his nervous chords of steel to call "Mr. Wright!"

Not until a mere twenty minutes ago, the siblings were minding their own business when Trucy finally ended her last class exam. Both were on their way home (by walking, obviously) when Apollo's phone started to vibrate with a new incoming message from an unknown number.

_Appolo! Dis Phoenix wright, plz i need urgent halp! Come 2 find me plz_

Of course, any call for help drew the siblings' concern. Upon learning of what horror they might meet, they started running nervously to the so called firm, trying to find their business card on the way, not even minding how Mr. Wright was able to get his hands on Apollo's personal phone number.

However, when they finally opened the door, no one was in. And surprisingly, the place looked like a battlefield. It seemed more like the residence of a… hobo than a professional firm. Well, Mr. Gavin's firm was their own residence too, but the man was so clean and he taught the two kids to be as tidy that it didn't really matter anymore. Few hunting equipment were scattered all around: on the couch, in the bathroom and even in the kitchen.

While Trucy waited at the door to watch out for… eventual problems that might possibly be coming, Apollo attempted to make his way inside the firm without touching the equipment everywhere. He still called the man, hoping he'd reply, but then another quiver surprised his pocket. He took out his phone and saw another message from Mr. Wright, again.

_Oops, should tell u im in the hickfield clinic lulz. But srs, i need halp_

"Damnit!" Apollo hollered loudly when he nearly threw his phone away, giving a jump to his sister who turned to him. "Mr. Wright isn't even here! He's in the Hickfield clinic!"

Both siblings sighing in vexation, they started running again, this time toward the clinic. After another ten minutes of legs workout, they finally reached their destination. They were welcomed by a rather… sinister individual who appeared to be a doctor… staring intensely at Trucy. "Ohhhh, and who might you be, little girl?" the doctor hissed out, his screeching voice ringing in the girl's horrified ears, his hands slowly approaching her until Apollo gave the man a stern, menacing glare.

Trucy gasped at the perverted doctor and hid behind her brother. How the heck could Mr. Wright be placed in this kind of clinic? "We're searching for a certain Phoenix Wright," Apollo strictly revealed, and suddenly, he felt like a person in the force, with a girl behind him and a criminal to convict in the front. There was nearly a beam of pride on his face as the doctor slowly back away with fear and answered him.

"Oh, erm, yes, yes, Mr. Wright, that porcupine head of a pianist! You'll find him in the room 215!"

Pleased with the answer, both rushed to the said room, and unexpectedly, the man they were searching for was there, all comfortably on his bed, having some relaxing times watching… children samurai old shows. "Mr. Wright," Apollo called, all dumbfounded. "Are… you okay?"

Upon hearing the young attorney, the man turned to the two siblings, smiling at them. It was kind of creepy considering the recent rushing situation. "Ah! Apollo, Trucy! You finally came!"

"Huh?" Trucy looked around, seeing nothing out of the place, except for the pill of DVD covers all around, which were all, excitedly, of one of her favorite old shows, the Steel Samurai: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo. She almost jolted of joy at seeing them, but she had to make herself serious in times of needs. "Weren't you in danger or something, Mr. Wright?" she asked.

The man on the bed merely laughed at them, virtually mocking them. With a face palm, Apollo was already ready to leave the room without further questions. "Oh, you could say so!" Mr. Wright started amicably. "Not anymore, actually, but I've been victim of a hit and run yesterday. Here I am today."

When hearing the little story, Apollo finally returned back, shifting his attention on the man once more, and this time with a more worried look. "What happened? How did you get hurt?" the attorney questioned.

"Oh, it's a long story, so come and sit down," Mr. Wright wisely said like an old grandfather excited to tell a fictional, fairy tale to his grandchildren. Apollo and Trucy looked at each other, raising their shoulders in confusion, but they decided to awkwardly obey. "Good, so I was on my way to the Alden Tae's restaurant, where I play the piano, of course. When I was close to the People Park, a fast car shoved me thirty feet away and I hit… something… then I walked away to the nearby clinic with a sprained ankle."

The two young people were left speechless at the story. Trucy broke the silence with a protest. "That wasn't even a long story!" she objected, sulking badly.

On the contrary to his sister, Apollo was more shocked by the amazing feat of Mr. Wright to have nothing more than a sprained ankle. He couldn't be human after surviving this type of accident! That, or the man should have been called Mr. Lucky, or something. "All right, Mr. Wright," Apollo started after a heavy sigh. "You called us, and we're here. What happened to you was regretful, but… why did you call us, exactly?"

"Well, why indeed?" Mr. Wright nearly ridiculed the boy's comment. "Actually, I want you to investigate and find the one responsible for my accident, and then I'll sue them!"

"What?" the attorney exclaimed. "I'm an attorney, not a detective!"

However, something sparkled inside Trucy's mind. For her, whenever there was work, there was money to gain, and working in an investigation together with her brother sounded like something she'd call fun. "Hey, Polly!" the girl started enthusiastically. "I think we should take the work! You've got a new client for your lawyering work! It'll be good for your career and our pockets! And you'll get to defend eventually, I'm sure!"

Hearing the comment from his sister prompted him to furrow his brows and cross his arms like an unhappy child. He always had a hard time not to listen to the heart and needs of his little sister. It must be his big brother's side of him. Leaving an annoyed sigh and dropping his shoulders in defeat, he finally mumbled: "All right, Truce, let's investigate."

Somehow, both Trucy and Mr. Wright made a "hurrah" victory move as Apollo unwillingly agreed to the request.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, your _true_ client should be at the firm now, so let's not make the wait longer, shall we?" the man revealed with a sympathetic smile.

Apollo raised an eyebrow. "True" client, really?

* * *

><p>And how weird the request had become.<p>

It started with Mr. Wright "urgent" text message. Soon, the story shifted to a noodle stand thieving story for an odd man named Guy Eldoon, then Trucy's stolen magic panties (why didn't she tell Apollo about it earlier?). Finally, it became the murder of the real author of the hit-and-run involving the scary, hyperactive son of the powerful Kitaki gang own boss, Wocky Kitaki. The murder story brought back together the presence of, to their big surprise and a little joy, their old friend Klavier who had been assigned to this murder case as the prosecutor. Along him came his somewhat, grumpy "assistant", a scientist, or rather, wannabe scientist who was truly a detective, Ema Skye.

In spite of all that chaos, a new client finally emerged from the mass: none other than Wocky's fiancée, Alita Tiala. She asked Apollo to represent her soon-to-be-married husband, insisting he was innocent despite the young man admitting guilt from the start.

To his luck or rather, thanks to his attorney talent and his inherited sense, he managed to win the trial against his extremely talented prosecutor friend and find a truth which was much more heart lightened than his first trial, thankfully. He succeeded to catch the real murderer, Mrs. Tiala herself, who was nothing more than a heartless woman who only wished to gain the fortune of the Kitaki family by marrying their only son. Wocky was definitely not happy with the result, but it was to his fortune the Kitaki boss, the father himself, straightened the boy up to the right direction, for Apollo's best, truly!

And suddenly, his attorney job didn't look that bad anymore. With his sister Trucy Enigmar as his assistant, Mr. Phoenix Wright as his new law mentor, that grumpy yet amicable Detective Ema Skye and Prosecutor Klavier Gavin as his rivals to help him find the truth, his career and life was shifting toward a better life.

A new, merrier chapter of their lives began, indeed!

Even if that salty bowl of noodle didn't appear too much appealing as a reward…

Months had passed, and Apollo Justice's name was starting to get known among the area and the firm thanks to the few cases he'd taken, all with rightful innocent verdicts. Trucy insisted to stupidly rename the firm the "Wright '_Anything_' Agency" since many new talents were now found under the roof of the place. Oddly enough, Mr. Wright easily agreed to the new name. Sometimes, Apollo wondered if Trucy and Mr. Wright were somehow related in another life when both acted in the same easy-going way.

In the end, he was glad Mr. Wright was not only a man of truth, but a man to trust and a caring mentor.

* * *

><p>Date: October 16th 2026, 4:47 PM<br>Place: Wright Anything Agency, Office

"Dude, I have the evening off with the rest of the weekend!" Clay joyfully exclaimed as he sat in front of his friend's desk. "Let's go for a hunting session!"

"I'm sorry, Clay, I have a lot of paperwork and I need to bring Truce at the Wonder Bar for her Friday show," Apollo answered before he returned his attention to his papers.

"Aw, c'mon!" the now recently full-pledged astronaut protested. "Hunting with Mr. Wright only is boring, and I hardly get to have a Friday night off! By the way, where's Mr. Wright?"

When hearing the name of her mentor, Trucy quickly stopped her magic practice to answer her friend. "Oh, he's gone to see few people in the courtroom about something!" she happily answered. "I don't know what's all of this is about, though!"

Curiously, Clay returned to Apollo for an answer, but his buddy only let a breath out in response. "I don't know the answer either," the lawyer admitted. "Mr. Wright just won't tell us anything sometimes, but we got used to being oblivious, I guess."

"Man, that sucks!" Clay said in disappointment. "But hey, it's 5 PM in few minutes, so the shift's ending soon! Any plan for the night?"

Apollo hit his forehead with his palm. "Huh, Clay, didn't I just tell you that Trucy has a show tonight? Stop trying to convince me!"

Suddenly, the entrance door opened, revealing Mr. Wright who was finally back from the courtroom, and this time, he quite appeared in good mood, more than usual.

"Hey kids," the older man called them, attracting their attention on him. "I've got… good news, especially to you, Apollo."

"Ohhhhh! You're gonna get a gift, Polly!" Trucy yelled out with a grin.

"Wow! Congratulations Apollo!" Clay mockingly shouted out along with the girl.

"Hey! We don't even know what Mr. Wright will talk about!" Apollo objected, a bit on the shy side.

Playing the game along with the astronaut and the magician, Mr. Wright began to laugh. "Actually, I have no gift, but guess what? I've finally managed to prove my innocence regarding the forged evidence seven years and half ago, thanks to your fop friend Klavier, and few others."

Everyone, especially Trucy, cried of joy at the news and the girl went to hug her mentor tightly, to which Mr. Wright hug her back. The rest of the shift was talk about how this happened and how he was declared innocent. Apparently, the forger himself revealed about a client who needed that forged page, and the client was definitely not Mr. Wright. However, whenever the subject of the client's mysterious identity for the forgery was brought back by the three young people, a serious frown appeared on the older man's expression. "Well, let's just say someone wanted me to lose my trial against Klavier, and that person's gone now, so it doesn't matter much anyway."

The answer didn't quite satisfy them, especially Apollo, but with Mr. Wright, maybe it was the best to ignore the fact and just be glad that the man was now out of suspicion.

"_After all_," Mr. Wright thought to himself. "_Kristoph was the one behind it all, again. I don't want them to suffer the sadness again for their loved protector. And he did it all to make his little brother win._"

"_Klavier didn't look pleased of the truth at all either, the poor kid_."

* * *

><p><strong><span><em>Author's note<em>**_: Yes, I know. I needed a motive for Kristoph's forgery request, so there: a cheap, brotherly love :/_


	14. A New Lawyer

_I made the last trial extremely quick because, obviously, we don't need to hear about it. And the other trials of AA4 wouldn't work in this AU fic, so let's say Apollo had "other" trials, and Phoenix suddenly got declared innocent for the forging incident. I'm so cheap._

_I changed the start of the DLC part a bit. Forgive me. I also skip many trials to focus back to the vampire world._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Ace Attorney and its characters. _I also do not own the in-game scripts that can be found in this chapter_. Capcom owns them._

**Chapter 13: A New Lawyer**

Date: April 17th 2027, 3:42 PM  
>Place: Nine-Tails Vale, Kyubi Manor<p>

This was going to be a simple festivity day at Nine-Tails Vale, watching out for Trucy and her quite special friend Jinxie who wouldn't stop calling him a demon lawyer, thanks to his weird hair antennas that made him rather proud of his look. There was also no need to mention how he loved to wear red and how piercing his eyes were, scaring the little girl away. To top it all, Jinxie came from an area where people actually believed there were yokais wandering all around (or monsters, just to not sound like an otaku himself, but he couldn't help it). How people still believed in rubbish beliefs in the twenty-first century, especially in this country, was beyond his comprehension.

But today, Jinxie had just called for help, insisting that a certain sinister and powerful yokai known as Tenma Taro had murdered the alderman of the village. While Apollo did not believe the Tenma Taro legend the villagers feared so much, he was more concerned about the murder itself. And here he was now, rushing like a madman inside the manor and leaving Trucy outside to comfort her terrified friend. He dashed toward the wide room (so nicely named the Fox Chamber to honor the good yokai, the "protector" of the village, the Nine-Tails Fox). Apparently that was the room where the murder took place.

And what a sight that welcomed him! To his left, the alderman, Rex Kyubi, was left down on a table, blood splattered all around him on the furniture and floor alike, a spear thrust into his abdomen and black feathers spread everywhere. To his right, another bloodied surprise awaited him with a tall man sitting on the sofa, his forehead bleeding from what seemed to come from a blow.

Noticing the man on the right was still breathing, he immediately went to him, but fortunately, the man didn't appear to be fatally wounded. However, he was in need of medical assistance, and using his precious chords of steel, he called for help.

In the end, the wounded man was found the prime suspect of the crime, and later he was revealed to be Jinxie's father, Damian Tenma. Jinxie being Trucy's friend and Mr. Tenma being the only parent left for Jinxie, Apollo finally gave in to the puppy eyes the two girls gave him and accepted to defend the man in court. Aside, they were short of trials in these days and he'd have to pick up any case he could, especially since his boss Mr. Wright was planning on returning to the law soon.

Also, no more toilet cleaning in a while! How Mr. Wright was so obsessed with a clean, shining toilet was still a mystery to him.

Speaking of the man, where exactly was Mr. Wright anyway? He knew he went to meet an acquaintance of his, with his many recent travels to Europe. He might know quite a lot of people over there, and he was curious about who the person he met today was this time.

Of course, now that he had the experience, he knew where to start with the case, and he decided to begin with a simple visit at the detention center while Trucy returned to the agency. The interview with the man started quite… frighteningly, but it went more than well in the end.

And that was when things were starting to get interesting.

A call from Mr. Wright.

"Justice here!" Apollo responded the call.

"_Apollo, is that you?_"

"Hi, Mr. Wright, what can I do for you?"

"_Trucy told me you've taken on a new case_."

"Oh that. It was kinda spur of the moment."

"_That's fine, but I have a favor to ask. I'm at the airport right now. There was someone I had to meet. A new addition to the agency, actually_."

A new addition to the agency? This left Apollo speechless for few seconds in a kind of happy way. He always liked to meet new people.

"_Her name's Athena Cykes, and she just passed the bar_."

Then he finally remembered hearing about her from Mr. Wright himself, though he wasn't expecting the girl to join so soon. So, she was going to be a new attorney in the agency, and he couldn't wait to see her, how she looked like, what her techniques will be and everything else.

"_She took off as soon as I told her you needed help with a case. It was like there was no stopping her_."

The attorney almost jumped at the reveal. She already knew about the case? And she was already willing to help him? That Athena Cykes sure looked like an active, enthusiast girl on her job.

"_She's probably somewhere in Nine-Tails Vale by now. That's where that favor I mentioned comes in. I need you to go find her."_

Wait, how was he going to recognize the girl? Being the enigma he always was, Mr. Wright had never shown him or Trucy exactly how the girl looked like!

"_She'll be the girl in the yellow suit sporting an attorney's badge_."

"Okay, I'll find her."

It didn't take him too long to return to the village, and, surely quickly enough, he found a long, orange haired girl in a yellow suit arguing with a police officer. The latter found her suspicious since she appeared too young to have an attorney badge on her and to try making her way to the crime scene. So that was her!

Seeing how defensive and somewhat aggressive the young woman was, Apollo decided to wait and observe the two, until the officer grabbed her. A sudden move from girl made him jolt as she instinctively snatched the man's arms and threw him hard toward Apollo's direction!

Upon seeing the course of the police she threw off, just like that, she gasped in shock as soon as the flying body went straight on the spying young man in red she had never noticed. She ran toward both of them, only to find the police unarmed but out cold, with the other young man being topped by the unconscious body and trying to gently shove him away so he could make his way out.

What a nice way to be introduced to a newcomer!

"Whoops! Are you okay?" the young woman called.

"I think so…" Apollo answered, dusting himself from the dirt on his back, and then glancing at the policeman with some kind of embarrassment.

The girl made an even sadder face. "I'm SO sorry! I do that when people suddenly grab me! It's like a reflex or something."

Well, that was quite a reflex, he thought.

After shaking his head in disbelief, he decided to go straight to the point. "You're Athena Cykes, I take it?" the brunette questioned.

"That would be me!" Athena's eyes went wide in amazement. How could this young man know her name? "And you are?"

"I'm Apollo Justice. I work at the Wright Anything Agency."

Upon learning of the agency name, a silence struck on her mouth for few seconds. "The 'Wright Anything Agency'?" she repeated with a silly frown. "What a fishy sounding name…" But soon enough, she finally realized where the name came from. "Oh right, THAT Wright! So then, you must be…"

And just like that, her mood abruptly changed to a much happier expression while she intensely stared at him, leaving the young man in some discomfort. "Where have you been?! I've been looking all over for you!"

Thus everything started that way. After few talking, Apollo was impressed how much of a genius the girl was by becoming a defense attorney at only eighteen. And there he thought he was very sensational by getting his badge at a mere twenty-one, though he never actually bragged about it, save for shoving his badge at everyone. Later, she revealed about how she had been to Europe, and Apollo guessed she probably got it early thanks to the place being more progressive than their own country. He still remembered about Klavier going there to get his badge early too. He was also amazed by her studies in analytic psychology to help herself into, at least, defending people. That could be another way of digging up the truth out from people.

However, what was the most impressive was that little device she had on her collar. It was some type of emote screen device that actually showed her own emotions. It was like those shirts that changed colors whenever someone were happy or angry, but with a one hundred percent accuracy. Widget was the cute name given to it.

As they started investigating together in the manor, somehow, both already felt familiar with each other as if they'd been investigation partners since forever.

However, Apollo couldn't help but ponder deeply whenever he thought about Athena's last name.

Where exactly did he hear the name of "Cykes"?

* * *

><p>They won the trial, and they won together.<p>

Never Apollo had thought he'd need the help of the so called "analytic psychology" to get at the bottom of the trial, discovering the truth when his skill couldn't help (thanks to a certain pet hawk named Taka). He was glad to have a new working partner when there was a need for one. Ever since he insisted for Trucy to stay at home or at the agency to focus on her studies instead of his own law job, investigating was a little more difficult. Now both Jinxie and Mr. Tenma were free people once again, and the real murderer was behind the bars.

Though he wished Trucy's friend would stop calling him a demon, even if he was used to it by now.

He remembered how unfazed both were when they spoke of their strange developed senses, but it was more their unfazed expression that brought them questions about how normal they thought their senses were. While Apollo and, of course, Trucy, had piercing, inhumane eyes, Athena had her inhumane ears that nearly heard everything to the point of being able to tell people's emotion by their heartbeat. Anyone hearing them talking about their little genetic talent would find them crazy.

However, more mysteries seemed to surround the agency newcomer, especially how she appeared to know that trial prosecutor, a certain man named Simon Blackquill, a rather sinister, odd otaku inmate. Yes, otaku, as in a samurai-like person calling people with foreign terms, straight out from anime series. Not only Athena knew him and she didn't look like she wanted to speak about the prosecutor, but he was an inmate! A creepy and dark prosecuting inmate's presence was already unusual on the prosecution bench, so why that man?

No one knew, maybe except for the man himself.

Athena was now a full pledged member of the agency, and Trucy's dream of having another girl in the office had now been magically fulfilled for her. Now she didn't feel left out anymore, especially when before Athena's presence, only men frequented the firm. Even sometimes a male buddy named Clay was added in this little manly fun when there was a hunting session, making Trucy the sole girl of the place. To make Mr. Wright and Apollo pity on her more, she even decided to classify the mascot pot plant of the office, Charley, as a male! How desperate was that?!

Somehow, Apollo wasn't as enthusiast as his sister at the thought of having Athena in the agency, especially when the new girl and Trucy were so alike in some way. They loved to tease poor Apollo about pretty much anything. While the now senior attorney of the place didn't mind much the mocking side of the girls, now there were literally two female against him. This was without even mentioning the scornful side Mr. Wright who treated him like the group's buttmonkey!

* * *

><p>Date: July 20th 2027, 11:56 AM<br>Place: Wright Anything Agency, Office

When Athena learned that the Wright Anything Agency was also a firm of hunters, she was surprised. She was only aware of the law (and magic) side of the place, and this drew out a curiosity toward the hunters. Seeing how the men of the place enjoyed their side job in their "killing" spree, she didn't dare to ask them about the experience, even after three months since her coming back in this country.

She still remembered her mother's researches years ago, the ones about the vampires, and how all of these researches were literally burned to crisp. She couldn't quite exactly remember what happened in her young, confused state of mind back then, but at least she knew Simon wasn't the culprit. It made her a little sad that she couldn't really openly speak of her goal to prove the man's innocent regarding her mother's murder. The only man who appeared to know about it was Mr. Wright himself, but she felt bad for leaving everyone else in the dark. Everyone deserved to know the truth, after all.

When she came to the agency this morning, Mr. Wright was nowhere to be seen. Her senior partner Apollo and her new friend Trucy were already on their duties, with Trucy practicing for her magic show at the Wonder Bar and Apollo… cleaning the toilet again (at Mr. Wright's order, as usual). Trials seemed to be a rarity in this part of the city…

"Hey Trucy!" Athena called the magician, seeing that Apollo appeared to be a little too concentrated on his job. "Where's the boss?"

"Hey there, Athena!" Trucy greeted back with a big smile. "I dunno where he went, but he said it's a surprise!"

"Huh? Why is it a surprise to where he's going?" the attorney girl retorted.

"Again, I dunno! Mr. Wright loves to be mysterious. It's almost poetic!" the magician replied.

"Well, that's boring!" Athena hollered with her hands laid on her hips. "While we wait for him, I think we should watch this little show on TV today, and it plays in like… two minutes! It's a re-run, but I've seen it before and I thought you two should watch it too!"

This peeked Apollo's curiosity, hearing everything from the bathroom. "Huh? What show?" the young man asked, still aimlessly rubbing the shining seat with a towel.

"It's the Swashbuckler Spectacular!" Athena cheerfully replied. "It's a show at the city aquarium with Cap'n Orla's Swashbucklers fighting the evil Nostache, a vile pirate! There're a swordfight, a spectacular song and an awesome orca!"

"Heh, that sounds like a children's cartoon," Apollo dully commented as he returned his attention to the cleaning.

"NO!" Athena childishly protested. "Well, it's starting, let me open the TV!"

"Yay!" Trucy exclaimed along with her, abandoning her magic practice to sit beside the junior lawyer and be prepared for the awesomeness that was going to show soon.

In the end, Apollo joined them in the fun, though he didn't appear as passionate as the two girls, but the spectacle was indeed more spectacular than he thought. While the show plunged him into a sort of trance by the outstanding spectacle it offered, never he'd openly admit he loved it as much as the two others.

Not too long after the end of the show that lasted a little more than thirty minutes, Mr. Wright finally came back in the agency. When Athena continued to brag about the show, Apollo was the first to notice something peculiar on his boss.

"Wait, is that… an attorney badge?" Apollo exclaimed, staring at the tiny bright pin on the vest collar his boss was proudly wearing.

Athena hit herself when she practically ignored the little fact. "Wow, congratulations, boss!" she cried out to him with a grin, trying to redeem herself.

Trucy also joined them in the new fun. "Wow, so that was the surprise! Awesome!" Trucy hollered, giving the man a hug.

It was about time the agency welcomed back its old lawyer, like eight years ago.

The moment that felt like a heart warmed reunion ended as soon as a new client stepped in the agency. The new young woman looked… like a pirate from the Swashbuckler Spectacular…

* * *

><p>Date: November 5th 2027, 10:12 PM<br>Place: People Park

It was the very first time Clay had been hunting alone ever since he started his sessions with Apollo and Mr. Gavin many years ago, and somehow, he didn't really trust himself.

But if he managed to become an astronaut, especially when his first launch into space will be in a little more than a month, then he was surely capable of hunting alone. After all, he managed to do it a few times alone while he temporarily separated himself from the other hunters during their sessions. He knew many hunters tracked these creatures alone and still succeeded well.

His father had always recommended him to avoid hunting sessions since he was going to space soon, but Clay couldn't help it. He still wished to avenge the death of his mother. Even if he knew some vampires might be modestly good vampires, thanks to the existence of Mr. Gavin himself, he knew the ones wandering around at nights were mindless, hungry stalkers.

Also, tonight was another one of those rare Friday nights he got to do anything he wanted because the Space Center gave him the entire weekend off.

Evidently, his best friend couldn't be with him tonight because he had to accompany his sister to her Friday night show, as always. Mr. Wright was apparently still busy meeting with a mysterious person no one knew about, but the rumors said it was someone from the law, and someone ranked high. Who could they have been?

Clay carefully scrutinized the surrounding, trying to use his ears to hear for moving leaves and his eyes to look for something suspicious. It was fortunate that the lamps lights in the park were quite bright, but unfortunately, artificial lights never prevented these creatures from moving around like the sun did to them.

He used some thermal lenses to look around and he found nothing. He did his best to not use them too often since they were heavy and in the way, but he'd only use them as a last resort.

That was when he saw a human silhouette on the tree beside him, the thing directly above his head.

But the shadow was too fast for him, and it plunged directly at him.

When the creature brutally pinned him down on the hard ground, Clay didn't have the time to reach for his gun. The astronaut and hunter felt hopeless when the creature restraining him roared at him with an icy, inhumane glare, his mouth watering of hunger from the pleasant smell of blood from Clay's tiny cut on his arm. All hope was lost, it seemed.

Until Clay directly looked into the eyes of the vampire.

No, it couldn't be…

Of course, Mr. Gavin was a vampire, but that man couldn't have… changed them already? No, that was impossible! Yet, before him stood a clear contradiction of the impossibility.

"A-A-Apollo?" Clay loudly murmured, his voice trembling at the thought of seeing his friend as one of them. His stare was filled with pure terror.

And just as he muttered the name, a miracle happened.

The vampire, still on the top of him, suddenly stopped growling and slowly backed away from him. The creature's eyes were wide open, filled with what appeared to be… fear. As the silence filled the atmosphere, none of them moved for few seconds: both were strangely shivering.

To his relief, on the second sight, Clay could see it was not Apollo, at all.

Coincidently, the vampire really looked like him.

Clay finally shook his head as a way to escape his little dreamy state and managed to stretch an arm to reach his gun, ready to shoot the creature. To his surprise, the latter had fled a little too fast before Clay could even fire. The hunter stood quickly on his feet and tried running after the vampire, but unfortunately, he disappeared in the horizon. It was not the first time a vampire succeeded to flee him and his partners unarmed, but he really hoped some other hunters were around to catch him.

The young man exasperatedly threw his hand through his hair with a silly, lonely laugh. Any stranger who'd see him in that state would question his sanity. "Man, that was kinda funny!" Clay chuckled to himself. "Wait until I tell that to Apollo, I think he'll find me stupid!"

* * *

><p>Date: November 27th 2027, 1:01 PM<br>Place: Gavin's Condo, Living Room

As usual, Mr. Wright was absent from the agency, and with no trial and no paperwork anywhere, the boss gave everyone a day off. Besides, it was a sunny Saturday, so everyone better enjoyed their day off all together, for once.

It was not the first time Athena came to the siblings' residence, but every time she came in, she was kind of envious to them to see such luxurious home. It couldn't even compare to her tiny rented apartment, but at least it was comfy. Of course, the siblings never really mentioned about the previous owner of the place, for the better or worse, but it appeared that everything that belonged to that mysterious owner were still in place everywhere in the cozy home.

Trucy had been procrastinating with her exam studies that were coming up, and instead, she decided to play a gaming console game along with Clay and Apollo. Curiously, the game they were playing was an online co-op first-person shooter where vampire hunters killed vampires and even humans sometimes, just for the laugh. Of course, Trucy was good at shooting on her own human allies, again, for the laugh, which somehow revealed the hidden gaming rage in her brother for lowering their own team's overall score. Clay, however, remained calm even after being killed by his friend's sister.

Curiosity led Athena to scrutinize around the siblings' home, and she found few pictures around, mostly consisting of younger versions of Apollo and Trucy, along with a golden retriever and a tall, blond man. The surprise hit her when she noticed there were no young child picture of Apollo anywhere, or even a younger version of the tall blond man who appeared to be acquaintance of the two siblings.

When the gaming session had ended, Apollo eagerly insisted to play another game instead, and he indicated a party board game, on the gaming console of course. Trucy agreed excitedly because she was good at the game, but Clay decided to take a break. When the astronaut made his way to the kitchen to get something to eat, he noticed the other attorney girl observing few other pictures in a mirrored armoire. "Hey, Athena, are you looking at these pictures?" Clay asked.

"Oh!" Athena jolted. "Yeah! I find it nice they had many pictures of them!"

"Yeah! Both Apollo and Trucy didn't change much since their young age!" Clay exclaimed along with her.

Athena returned her attention on the mysterious blond man who could be found among others. He surprisingly resembled to… a certain rock star prosecutor she had met in a previous case. "Who's that man with the two?" Athena interestedly asked.

The question caused a certain discomfort to Clay, but he decided to answer. For Athena to ask such question, he realized neither Apollo nor Trucy might have told her the complete story behind that man on the picture. "Well, I guess I can tell you since we trust you," Clay replied, dropping his tone while heading closer to the girl. "But please, don't yell it to others that I told you!"

Well, Athena had her sheer amount of secrets and stories she didn't really want to share either, mainly when it came to her past life and Simon Blackquill, so she nodded in agreement. Satisfied, Clay began. "That man's Kristoph Gavin, you know, the older brother of the famous lead singer of the Gavinners. He's also a known prosecutor."

"Oh yeah, I know Prosecutor Klavier Gavin! I met him in a case not long ago! And I got his autograph too!" Athena whooped like a dreaming girl until she realized she was being too loud. She shushed her tone quickly. "So singer Klavier has a brother?"

"Yeah, Apollo and Trucy lost their family to vampires when they were young, and Kristoph was the one to find them and take care of them," Clay continued.

"Huh, well that's weird… Where's Kristoph then?" Athena commented.

Clay went silent for a moment, looking pensive, then he returned his attention to the pictures. "If you really want to know, I'll let you guess," Clay started, smiling weakly. "Look carefully at all the pictures portraying our two friends over the years where Kristoph appears, and you'll find out."

"A guessing game? I like guessing games!" Athena almost yelled out but she immediately put her hand on her lips to shut herself.

She decided to play along and observed the pictures. There didn't seem to be anything fishy. In all of them, all the three appeared to be happy, grinning and beaming with life.

…

All of the sudden, something clicked in her deep soul while she continued to stare into the Kristoph person. No, that was impossible.

She recognized the silhouette of a murderer.

The murderer of _her_ mother.

Suddenly, Athena clasped her hands against her head, shivering from all parts of her body, her trembling lips trying to mutter few words and her eyes going empty, barren of emotion. Upon noticing the odd and unexpected reaction from his friend, Clay quickly grabbed her shoulders, worried of her impulsive state of mind. "Athena, what's the matter?" Clay yelled, drawing the attention from the two siblings. When the two saw the astronaut clutching and shaking the young lawyer, they immediately rushed to them by calling the girl's name.

"A-Athena?" Apollo cried out, holding her between his arms in his turn. "C-Come back to us! What's happening?"

She wanted to prevent herself from spacing out, so Athena quickly shook her head, but she was still trembling of fear, pointing at the pictures. "Huh… H-He… I-I think…" was all she managed to get out.

The siblings directed their sight on the pictures, seeing nothing odd in particular. "W-What about the p-pictures?" Trucy wailed.

One of Athena's shaking hands was focused on one specific picture in which a sixteen years old Apollo was standing with Vongole and Mr. Gavin, dating from October 12th, 2020. Apollo remembered that day quite well: it was when his old mentor came back from his "one week vacation". He'd remember that because Mr. Gavin was wearing a striking bandage on his right hand.

"I think… he's the man who murdered my mother, seven years ago… I… finally remember…"

It was when goose bumps appeared all over Apollo's body. He, too, went speechless.

Now he remembered where he heard the name of Cykes. That was during that murder case in the Cosmos Space Center and the last day of Mr. Gavin. The old mentor's voice now echoed through his shocked mind like an incessant, cutting wind striking against him.

_However, if you must know the answer to your wonders, I'll give you a hint. Dr. Cykes, that is all._

* * *

><p>"So, your mother was Dr. Metis Cykes?" Apollo asked.<p>

"Yes," Athena weakly replied, still shaken by the sudden emotions rushing. "And I saw the murderer…"

Neither Apollo nor Trucy said a thing. They were staring at the floor, a little sorry for the girl when they realized Mr. Gavin might have been behind the murder of their friend's mother. Noticing the discomfort in the siblings, Clay decided to take over. "You saw Mr. Gavin doing the deed?" the astronaut questioned.

The young attorney woman wiped out few tears. "I didn't really see the murder itself, but I saw him holding the bloodied sword. He was wearing a mask, he was tall and he had long blond hair, just like… that Kristoph. And to top it all, there was no heartbeat from him, so I immediately knew he was a vampire. It was confirmed when I heard him growl like a beast…"

"Out of fear and anger, I took a knife and tried to hurt him, but I only managed to reach his right hand. I still… remember the snarl and roar when he cried of pain. I still have nightmare about it to this day…"

"That's when he shoved me out of his way and I passed out. When I woke up, Simon found me and my mother… and… I think he thought I did it innocently, because I was trying to 'repair' her with the robot repair machine. Alas, that machine would've kill her if it were to "repair" a human being… He didn't want to see me convicted, so he took all the blame for my sake…"

"I was younger back then. The shock made me forget about most of the event, and there was a trial for Simon… I was the sole witness, and I kept telling the audience how Simon's heart screamed he didn't do it. I was so silly, no one would believe such things!"

"Then, when I saw the picture of that Kristoph, the date stamp on it… and with your guessing game, Clay… I remembered everything…"

Both Clay and Trucy began patting the back of a saddened Athena to bring her comfort. Trucy was especially sorry that the man who had helped them had even more skeletons in his closet than she thought.

However, Apollo quickly hit a table in anger with his fists. How many more murders did Mr. Gavin accomplish in the past? Why was such an evil man helping him and his sister? And also, why did he have to kill a mother, of all people?

What if Mr. Gavin was also their mother's killer so he could get ahold of her two blessed children?

"Also, the entire researches of my mother about the psychology of vampires had been burn down to the last page by the same man. She wrote all the formulas for a medicine that could help control the hunger of the vampires so they could live peacefully with humans. With the medication, they could even live under the sunlight! And now they are gone! The murderer stole the remaining meds! To this day, I still wonder why a vampire like himself did something like this… My mother was helping the people like Mr. Kristoph, so… why?!"

That was when Apollo and Trucy realized how Mr. Gavin was easily able to accompany them in their first trial despite the sunny weather of that fateful day. But of course, he was carrying a bottle of medications that day! This completely explained how a vampire like Mr. Gavin was able to wander around freely under a normal bright sky!

So their dark mentor really was Athena's mother's killer…

More sobs escaped Athena's mouth as she was lost into an uncontrollable crying moment. Apollo slightly calmed down upon hearing his friend crying out her sadness, but at the same time, he was thinking of an answer to her angry question, and he found one.

"I think… Mr. Gavin killed your mother because her idea will revolutionize a world where his hunting job wouldn't be lucrative anymore…" Apollo revealed.

"That… actually makes senses," Clay added. "A peaceful world with vampires living with humans together would be kinda neat, but if someone is a full-time hunter, they'd have no job!"

"Yeah! There will be nothing to hunt if vampires are just like humans!" Trucy went along with the two others.

Somehow, the sadness in Athena had dissipate slightly at the reaction of the three. Normally, whenever the discussion of vampires living peacefully with humans came out, there'd be controversial topics about them being mindless and all, and that it could never work. And there they were, nearly agreeing with her as if such thing like vampires being nice was something… possible.

"Wait," Athena started, still in disbelief. "You guys seem all comfortable about vampires being good! Now I'm confused."

Apollo took a long breath before answering. "Well, Mr. Gavin was a vampire. He was nice to us and he was a bright man, so yes, we believe they can be like us humans."

"But we've moved now!" Trucy yelled out. "Though we still don't know how he could control his instincts before he stole your mother's meds. We only discovered he was a vampire the day he was executed."

Suddenly, a happier spark in Athena's mind struck her when speaking about vampires' emotions. She felt like reviving the old times when she lived in the Space Center, the time when she bragged about her mother's studies. "Actually, there's a simple, yet not so simple way for a vampire to keep their sanity from the start!" Athena boasted. "You know, all vampires were once humans, right? So when they are reborn into one, they need to get fed and never be hungry, because, like in the animal kingdom, hunger is what leads predators to act aggressively! To not go after humans, good vampires go after animals instead!"

Was the explanation that simple? Now that they put more thoughts into it, everyone heard about those documentaries and articles depicting how animals living among humans were tame and not really aggressive, thanks to the humans who kept them fed all the time. There were also stories about humans beginning to act instinctively when a famine struck the mass. Famines had caused humans to eat other humans as their last resort in the past.

So could the same be applied to vampires?

"I wish Mom's studies were still here, so we wouldn't have to hunt them anymore," Athena let out, now returning to her sad state. "If only that man didn't burn her notes…"

Now the room was silent like all hope was lost.

"Wait," Trucy broke, turning to Athena. "I'm surprised someone so science like your mom couldn't have made a safety backup of her notes."

And abruptly, all eyes were turned to the magician who gazed back at everyone, speechless. A… backup?

"Wait, Trucy!" Athena yelled. "You… might be right, there's hope! Mom always told me whenever I have stuff I want to keep in any devices, I should always make a backup! Maybe there's really a backup of her researches somewhere! And I think I know who to ask that for!"

"We should go ask Ponco and Clonco!"

* * *

><p><em><span><strong>Author's note<strong>__: Yes, Shimmering-Sky, you were right all along about Metis's murder. :p_


End file.
